Forwards

If you're old enough to remember when e-mailing others was new and exciting and pre-Facebook, do you remember when you use to receive dozens of forwards from friends and family every day? You'd open your account to find your mailbox filled (because we even had limited space!) with spam or junk mail. Maybe some of you still do, but I don't. I get the ocassional forward and it's usually from only a few people.

Honestly, most of them I don't read unless the subject line grabs my attention. And do you remember how most of these have a "chain letter"-type line somewhere near the bottom that either says prayer for someone, forward it on and others will pray for you or "don't break the chain of good luck" or some other gimmik like that? Yeah...that's why the skeptic in me never forwarded any of these. If my "luck" is solely dependent upon my e-mailing skills...then I'm in very bad shape indeed!

But today (you knew this was coming, right?) I received one that made me stop and think. It's more parable than truth, but it just happened to hit me right where I've been thinking for a long time. Bear with me if you've heard it before, but here it is:

A Holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,

'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table..

In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew

which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly.

They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.

There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water.

The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, 'I don't understand.

'It is simple,' said the Lord. 'It requires but one skill...

You see, they have learned to feed each other.

The greedy think only of themselves.'

Now, ignoring all of the 'forward this on' lingo at the end. This had something very profound to say to me. There was even this tag line:

I will always share my spoon with you.

As I exhaled at the challenge this presented to me, I really had to stop and give pause to consider...'Even as much as my heart has been changed by You, God...would I really, wholeheartedly, always share my spoon with others?'

I don't know that I can answer this with a definitive, 100% yes. There are times in our neediness as a family that when God's Spirit prompts me to give away food or money, even after two plus years of living this way...it is a battle. My enemy starts reciting to me the litany of reasons why it is insane to give that "thing" away. But praise God...He is right there doing battle with the evil one and in many of those situations, He has encouraged me to give away even more...or even the best that we have...and I find great joy in doing it. I mean, most Americans can give away a cheap $1.00 jar of peanut butter and not bat an eye, right? But when someone of very limited means gives away a $5.00 plus jar of organic peanut butter? Well, I can affirm without question...that only comes by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I can take no credit for any part of that gift.

The times when He's helped us give away some of our best have brought more joy than I could ever relate with mere words. And most of the time, it's only He and I that know what a struggle it was to give it away...and that just multiplies the joy tenfold or more! It's almost like having a really great secret with your best friend. No wait...it's exactly like having a really great secret with my Best Friend!

Don't let the lingo or the idea that the little story above was from a forwarded e-mail hang you up here. Scripture is covered in references to giving outside of ourselves, above and beyond what we ever think we could...taking care of each other and also the poor and needy in our midst. To live this way is to live like Jesus, and I can't think of anything better than that!