Giving is Power

Giving is Power

I turned 30 years old last week (June 28). I had a little advice from Emie (because she is older than me and turned 30 months ago) so the day wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Though the week leading up to it was. I am actually OK with being 30; I just can’t believe that I am. I feel like I am 22 but glad I am not!
I remember being in grade school and not wanting to go back to class after Christmas break. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to go back to school but because I knew we would all sit around and share what we got for Christmas. I knew I wasn’t going to impress everyone. Though my childhood was blessed and in ways dysfunctional, I always received something. But I also knew that the rich kids received just about everything in the Sears catalog. The reality is that about a week later no one really cared any more.
I wrestle at times with the desire to own “nice” things. If I had nice things the kids on the playground would be impressed and I would be somebody. With a “somebody” status then I could be greater and have more power. Then I would be in a position to do great things.
What I wrestle with the most in my life though, is that I must make an impact on my world and more specifically those I come in contact with. I realized this last week that the more tangible it is the better I feel about myself. So I went through a mini-mid-life-crisis the week heading into my birthday. “Am I making a tangible impact on people?” I am confident I am impacting people spiritually but numbers or budgets do not measure that, so it is hard to get my head around it.
Coming from a culture that thrives on getting (way to much), I was relieved that REI and other superficial forms of gifts don’t exist here in Pemba. So the Lord set me up.
A long story short, Emie and I were led to help a young man with the building of his house. He had saved his money for months bought land and then many months later began to build. Emie went last fall when she was here and prayed over his land asking the Lord to bless it. So I went the day before my birthday to check where he was in the process. Emie and I had agreed to put a tin roof on and to help out with his doors. So I went, talked with him as best I could, and we decided to purchase the materials the following day.
“Happy Birthday Papa” was a great thing to wake up to. I am feeling richer, greater, and more powerful already. What is wealth? What does blessing people look like? There are millions of people who don’t need our money, but our time, resources, smiles, love, ear, etc. If money is all we have to offer people then we are very poor indeed.
I was off to meet my friend and buy 40 sheets of tin. After three stores we found a place that had enough. We loaded it into the mini-bus and drove into the village as far as we could get. Then it was all on foot. My theory is “work smarter, not harder”. So I hired two guys to take the mile walk a couple times with the tin on their heads.
It was a spiritual battle the whole walk. “You shouldn’t be giving him this much money”. “What about your family, you need the money?” What happens when everyone else wants tin on their roof (most people have grass), are you prepared to give to them also?” And so it went.
We had parked the van inside a Leprosy compound so it would not get broken into and the tin stolen. When we finally returned back to the compound my friend introduced me to his friends he has there. It was a wonderful time of laughing and talking. I took pictures of them and they just rolled as they saw themselves on film. What does blessing people look like?
It hit me somewhere in those moments, maybe after praying for one guy and he wasn’t healed (that would have been a birthday present). Here I am in Africa, turning 30, buying hundreds of dollars worth of tin for a complete stranger, laughing and praying with Lepers and loving it. Oh, if the kids on the playground could see me now, what would they think? No wrapping paper, no candles, no balloons, just life! Some giving and others receiving, it is less stressful and you don’t have to take anything back.
I have stopped waiting for some organization to join in order to do my part in leaving an impact on my neighborhood; I realized I could be a one-man organization. So can you! So start blessing people with a smile or a hug or a lunch or a vehicle or the means to start a chicken business, or a bag of rice or buy all their oranges and give them away or buy someone a house or a roof. I believe it’s less about what is given and more about “in whose name it is given.” Matter of fact, in the Kingdom if God you could give water and be blessed for it. Though I think it is not meant to be the end but rather a beginning.
I can’t believe I am 30 and more astounding, as Emie brought to light, is how the Lord brought me into my 30’s giving to the poor and praying for healing in Africa. What a great decade it is going to be. If it is even close to the last 10 years the kids on the playground will be extremely jealous.

Jesus led me to this verse in the midst of my mini-mid-life crisis, days before my birthday.
“And without question, the person who has the power to bless is always greater than the person who is blessed.” Hebrews 7:7

Becoming greater!
Heath