I wanted to share a story from Honduras that my husband shared with me recently. It calls us all to live by faith and not by sight, to trust that God really is sovereign and in control. It is something that we here in North America really don't have to believe most of the time. Most of us have well paying jobs that pay the bills and then some. We can buy toys and luxuries, take vacations and do some really amazing fun things. We don't always have to trust God to provide for every need we have, because we don't always recognize that the job we have, the work we are getting, isn't coming from us - it is coming from Him. Whether you believe in Him or not.
But in Central America and other developing countries, if you don't have the hope of Christ, you really don't have hope at all. Not many have well paying jobs - most people barely have enough to buy groceries for their families much less toys and other things.
So here comes the story.....
A pastor we know in Honduras works with the church in Neuva Florida. One of the programs they have going allows children to be sponsored (similar to organizations like Compassion International) so that their daily needs can be met. Unfortunately, most of the time there are more children that show up to have their needs met than are sponsored.
The pastor at the church in Nueva Florida refuses to turn children away. Instead, he goes into debt every week with the markets so that he can buy enough food to provide meals for all the children that arrive. Not a single one is turned away. He believes that if children show up, then God is planning on feeding them.
Every week at the market, somehow, his debt is paid. Money comes in from places that he wasn't counting on, things happen - Zak and I call it God Math. The debt is square, because God provides - not us. God can do whatever math he likes.
Every time I think about this story, I always start to cry, because I am amazed that one man can have so much faith when he has so little of anything else. It's because he believes in a bigger God than I do. I am convicted by this every time I hear it to live differently, generously, because Zak always says, you can't go broke by giving too much money away.
A friend of ours jokes that he and his family can't have a budget because his wife gives too much of their money away. And if you ever go to their house, you see what he means. There is a warmth and beauty to his wife's faith and generosity that will leave you wanting to give everything you have away - because her treasure is not stored here on earth. She knows that no matter what she does, God will always give them what they need. She and her siblings were raised in the Ukraine during the KGB era as a Christian family. Several times her father had his monthly paycheck taken from him for practicing his faith - which meant he had no money to pay for food for his wife and 12 children. But she tells me they never went hungry. They always had what they needed.
She has told me stories about how she has tried to out-give God. And God always comes back at her with 20 times what she gave away. It was hilarious, because when she was telling me this she got so frustrated and said, "I just can't do it! I can't out-give God!"
How many of us live lives where we try to out-give God? I know that I don't most of the time. We give just enough to think we are generous - but do we really live sacrificially?
Recently, God did some math with our bank account. We had just found out we were pregnant with our second child, had to suddenly pay back a large amount of money and should have had zero dollars in our bank account. But we didn't. We paid our bills and my husband looked at me and said, "How do we still have this much in our account? Am I missing something?" I just smiled and said, "It must be God Math."
I was so thrilled about that little miracle, but I quickly wanted to close my hand around that extra money and think "Did God give this to us to hang onto? What if something happens and we need it?" Because my heart told me we needed to give some of it away.
Well, a couple of weeks later, we went to a movie and we had a couple hundred dollars stolen from us. I decided then and there that I wasn't going hesitate when God told me to give anymore. Things can be given, or they can be taken. I would so much rather give freely and be blessed by the fact that I have something to give than hold tightly to what I have and have it taken away.
I no longer believe in rainy day funds. I believe that God knows when the rainy days are and he will provide for them as they come. I believe that we are called to live generously and hold loosely onto what God has given us and that no matter how hard we try to out-give God, we will not be able to.
But how much more will we experience God working in our hearts when we do try.
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If you are interested in hearing more about Hungry for Life and what Zak and I do, feel free to contact us at zak.harris@hfl.org or check out our support website at www.zakharris.org. Thank you all and be blessed!
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