Act Generously

Exodus 20:15 "You shall not steal.

A few years ago what I really wanted at Christmas was a Palm Pilot. Now I know these things don’t come cheap, so I dropped hints to all my family members that perhaps they could all make a small contribution. “I don’t want your tat,” I told them, “just give me your money.”

On Christmas day I got a card from my brother in law. Having been taught well by my mother I gave it a good shake so that the money would drop out and I could be suitably grateful. But none did. Instead inside was a picture of a goat, which I had apparently ‘bought’ and sent to Africa….

Now it’s not that I think my brother in law is cheap. But I think that he was playing a part in a lesson that God wants me to learn. In our lives we have much, sometimes too much. It might not be enough for us not to steal, but for us to act generously.

The richest 20% of the world’s population:
• consume 45% of all meat and fish; the poorest consume 5%
• consume 58% of all energy; the poorest less than 4%
• have 74% of all telephone lines; the poorest 1.1%
• consume 84% of all paper; the poorest 1.1%
• own 87% of motor vehicles; the poorest less than 1%

It may not just be about keeping our noses clean. Saying we’re not stealing may not be enough. While we satisfy the negative command, do not, what about the positive that it alludes to? We need to be generous with what we own. We need to be compassionate with it. We need to be realists about what we can achieve with our time and resources. And we have to wonder if by just sitting on what we have we are in fact stealing from Him who gave us everything in the first place.