Nothing to Give?

The Blessing of NOT Being Able to Give Something

This morning, as I was going through my morning prayer, I was thinking of the many people whom I love… how much I desire that they be whole and well in every way, I thought of the some of the people whose lives would be better if they had more money or better health. I prayed and asked the Lord to bless me so that I can go to my loved ones with those kinds of needs and just say, “what do you need. I’ll take care of it.” In fact, I felt a little proud of myself. I thought to myself, “dude, what a noble and righteous desire. You’re on it Rob!”

But as I continued to think and pray, the Lord helped me to realize something about myself. Whenever I’ve been able to just give people something to solve their problem, I didn’t invest nearly as much of my heart, spirit, and emotions into their suffering. I was able to kind of say, “take this and move on.” On the other hand, when I don’t have the money to give, or when my prayer doesn’t immediately bring healing, then the situation actually costs me much more in terms of emotions, time, heart, energy, and my spirit. When I don’t have the money to solve a person’s problem, or when I can’t “pull” a miracle with a simple, quick prayer, my love for the person demands that I do something else, which usually means spending time with the person… being a friend… listening… relating… sympathizing… connecting… sharing the pain… bearing a share of the burden. Helping on this level is a prolonged effort, and so much of the time, I don’t want to be “bothered” that much.

Maybe that’s why God doesn’t always “set us up” in a way that helping people comes easy and quickly. Now, let me be very clear about the fact that having financial resources - or the spiritual resources to command healing - costs, too, but those strengths don’t force us, nearly as much, to build relationships and give of our time in listening and caring. When we don’t have “something” to give, or when we can’t “give” a healing, we give all we have – ourselves. When we can’t easily solve another’s problem by giving something, it’s harder to dismiss the person as a problem to be solved.

So, I’ve adjusted my prayer, a bit. Now, I still desire for the Lord to bless me to solve my loved ones problems. I want their suffering and discomfort to end, immediately. But if it doesn’t happen, then I know that the Lord is calling me to go deeper into relationship. Maybe that’s what’s most needed by the other person – a real, genuine relationship.

After thousands of years of other methods, when God decided to finally and decisively act to make us whole, He came to us, became like us, reached out to us, loved us, reconciled us to Him. By overwhelming us with His Person and Presence, He has made new life possible!

Pay attention. A New World is approaching.