Twisting the arm away

Paul writes to the church in Corinth (in the Message interpretation), "A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving."

We are in the process of planning and executing the plan for a silent auction/dinner in December to help fund this massive project we're involved in.

Just to remind anyone who hasn't heard, we need to repair the roofs over three of our buildings, we need to repair the walls below those roofs where water cascaded down them for decades, we need to bring the sanctuary into this decade if not this century with lights, sound, etc., we need new carpet in the sanctuary, and we need new pews. We need to gut part of the rooms upstairs, put in a ramp leading to a unisex handicapped bathroom, in fact we need bathroom work in every one in three areas, most buildings need painting and the list could go on and on.

But I've poured myself into the plans for the dinner on Dec. 6, at least in part because I am not capable of understanding much about roof plans. So I've weighed in on dinner plans, on music plans, on choices of meats and things as deep and wide as that.

But I don't like doing this. Not really. I don't like twisting arms. I don't like being the type of person who gives sob stories, even more so than hearing sob stories. It simply is necessary. In fact, I think that God has actually called me to do this. So, I'm doing my best.

What I've worked on mainly is making sure we don't spend too much of our capital before we make any. Interestingly, I've had my daughter calm me down about while I've done the same with others. In other words, can't make money if you've spent it before you ever begin.

In the spiritual realm, let's say that this way: You can't xxxxx if you've xxxxx on the front end. You can't ask someone to give if you don't give. You can't ask someone to serve if you're unwilling to serve. You can't ask for love if you're not willing to love your neighbor.

It is hard to comfort someone if you've spent all your comforting language, prayer, touch before you ever visit the ones needing comforting.

Say you get a call from your friend and she says her daughter has broken up with her boyfriend and could use a word or two. Say you've been extremely unloving to that young woman for years, an unkind word about her weight, an unkind word about her hair. You get a woman friend to go with you to talk to that daughter. What do you think will be the reaction?

Perhaps we just simply turn to God's message. "I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help. ... Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men, kicked when we're down by arrogant brutes."

Or maybe picked up, dusted off and  set on our way.

God, help us change the world, let's begin by changing us, changing our community, changing our lives.