Friday, November 24, 2006

God's Economy

Over the years, there have been times when we’ve needed a sum of money we simply didn’t have. We don’t put money aside ‘for a rainy day’: Jesus taught us to ask God to provide our daily bread, so why set bread aside to go stale, or alive with worms?! Whenever we’ve had a specific financial need, I’ve asked God to meet it, and we’ve not mentioned it to anyone else. Most often, God seems to meet that need by prompting someone to put the exact amount in cash in an envelope through our letterbox, anonymously.

At the moment, God appears to be playing a different game. I say game, because God’s economy is about generosity and creativity and childlike delight, and holding lightly what you have been given, and keeping an eye out for who we might bless. At the moment, we don’t have any unmet financial needs. But a few people have given us cheques recently, saying that they felt God had prompted them to do so. First, we were given a cheque for £100; and immediately became aware of an opportunity to meet someone else’s need. So, we decided to send them a £50 shopping voucher, intending to look out for someone else to give the balance. But before we had a chance to get the voucher, we were given another cheque, this time for £150. And again, almost immediately we became aware of a situation, where £100 would meet someone else’s need…

So, we’re giving money away, but we just can’t get rid of it fast enough! God is playing a game, a game of join-the-dots: person ‘A’ has money that could meet person ‘C’s need, and a willingness to give, but person ‘A’ doesn’t know person ‘C’…person ‘B’ is known to person ‘A’ and knows of person ‘C’s need…

God’s economy of giving and receiving and giving has a game-like quality to it. It is fun. Go play.


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