Giving the BEST

Recently a friend was describing to me how difficult it is to accept gifts. This friend and his family are having a difficult time right now with the loss of his employment. His family’s financial situation is not good at this time. They were habituated to a very comfortable life style with significant income to support all their needs and most of their wants. During these days they have been in a situation where they are trying to make ends meet on the salary from his part-time job.

He has been accustomed to being a giver to Christian and other charitable causes, but now he finds himself in the position of being a receiver instead of a giver. This is hard for most of us. We want to be independent and our pride is hurt if we are perceived as being “needy.”  In talking with him I asked him to consider that this is a season of time in their lives when God is teaching them to become receivers instead of givers.

While living in West Africa we learned so many valuable lessons from the nationals among whom we lived and worked for many years. The culture there dictated that when someone gave you a gift, you were to accept it no matter what the gift was or who the person was or what their giving capacity was.

Many times when I was in one of the villages, I was given a gift of eggs or a chicken or guinea fowl or a handful of seed. I always accepted the gift no matter how poor or needy the family was who was giving the gift. My modus operandi was to accept the gift and then give it to another family in need.

Every year in Burkina Faso one of the most feared times of the year for the villagers was February to April. It was at this time that there was an annual outbreak of meningitis. This disease was no stranger to most compounds and many children became infected. Parents would sometimes bring children to us who were already so ravaged by this dreaded sickness.

One such child was Laraba (the meaning of this name is Wednesday—he was born on a Wednesday!). His father walked and carried his emaciated body for 6 hours to our home. He insisted on leaving Laraba with us, and I believe that he expected to never see him alive again. We cared for Laraba for several weeks.  He lived in our compound with a couple other “project” boys, and he made a miraculous recovery.

We sent one of our workers on a bicycle to tell his father that he could come to get his son. A couple days later Laraba’s father showed up at our house. I went out to greet him in the shaded area of our compound where I often received villagers. After the normal 10 minutes of exchanging greetings—how did you get up this morning, how are your wives, how are your kids, how are your goats, etc.—Laraba and his father were reunited. Laraba was a very quiet 10-year-old, and he did not express much emotion, but his father was elated. He said over and over that his son was a miracle. I had an opportunity to tell his father about the miracle worker called Jesus.

It is customary to give a gift when someone has done something for you, so when I started the “good-bye” conversation with Laraba’s father, he stopped looking at me and dropped his head and stared at the ground. I could tell he was in deep thought, and finally he said to me, “I thought that my son was going to die, but you took care of him and he has been healed. I can never thank you enough, but I do not have a gift to give to you except this: I want to give you my son, Laraba, as a gift!”

My first thought was Lord, help me out of this one! Now it was my turn—I tucked my chin to my chest and stared at the ground and I prayed. The Lord quickly guided me to respond to him: “Thank you for such a wonderful gift. I accept your son as the very best gift that you could possible give to me.” I went on to tell him that we had a small problem with Laraba during the time he stayed in our compound. His father looked upset and looked at Laraba and said that he was sorry that he misbehaved. I told him that Laraba was a good boy and that he was well-behaved. The problem was that he did not like my wife’s cooking, so we had to have someone prepare “sagabo” for him—that is millet mush which is the staple for all villagers in our area.

So, I asked his father if he would be so kind to care for our son, Laraba, in his compound and feed him the good food that he was accustomed to eating. I told him that we would help to provide for Laraba while he lived and grew up in their village. His father was silent for only a moment and then said that would be a very good arrangement for me and his family. I was relieved for I was able to be culturally correct in accepting the best gift Laraba’s father could possibly give, and to successfully get Laraba back into his family situation.

Laraba’s father gave the very best gift possible for him. God asks for our best. What do we give Him?

Fine print

When our new issue of Consumer Reports arrives, the first thing Cheryl looks at is the inside of the back page. This page is called “goofs, glitches, gotchas” and features some interesting advertising errors submitted by readers. Often the goof or gotcha is in the fine print.

As a boy, I remember reading and studying the back of cereal boxes. There were great treasures inside some of those boxes, but sometimes you had to order the special toy. I sent my three box tops from cereal boxes in an envelope expecting to receive this big toy car—because the car looked so huge on the back of the cereal box. When Mama told me that it had arrived, I was so excited. That excitement was squelched when I saw the size of the package. I opened the very small package, and the toy car was less than two inches long! What a disappointment. I went in the kitchen and looked at that car on the back of the cereal box, and then I noticed the asterisk beside the car. The fine print by the asterisk at the bottom of the box said something like this: Car is not actual size depicted in the illustration. What a rip-off!

Have you ever read the fine print on a real estate document? Oh my goodness! Last week I signed a contract to sell Rolfe’s house in Louisville. I am so very grateful for someone in whom I can have complete trust as a real estate agent. The agent is the former church secretary in Rolfe’s last pastorate, and he requested that we use her. What a blessing. Not only is she taking care of arranging for painting and repairs, she is even making arrangements for charities to come to the house to pick up clothes, household goods and furniture to be given away. I did not even have to read the fine print in the contract because I trust Doris.

I was reading tonight in 2 Kings about King Hezekiah—yeah, the one that did not have a book in the Bible named after him. Chapter 18, verse 5 says, “He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.”

There was no fine print in Hezekiah’s relationship with God. Everything was clear between God and Hezekiah as he “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”

Laughing from heaven

Cheryl is driving and I have been working—and feeling badly because it has been so long since I have posted anything on the blog. We have been in Louisville this week getting Rolfe Dorsey’s house ready to put on the market. I never knew that dying could create so much work! I can truly empathize with others who have served as executor for an estate now that I am experiencing that responsibility.

I promised Rolfe long ago that I would carry out all his wishes after his death, and I often wonder if he has an awareness of what is going on here on earth now. Don’t laugh at me because I bet that you have wondered the same thing. If not, then you have at the very least joked about it—“if so-and-so knew that, he would turn over in his grave.”

I am convinced through my faith and the promises of the Word that it doesn’t really matter whether or not someone who has departed this earth for their heavenly home is aware of our trivial happenings here on the earth or not. Someone who is in the presence of the Almighty is so totally engaged in worshipping and praising the Lord that nothing else matters.

But, just for this moment, humor me by assuming that Rolfe was watching the following story unfold.

Cheryl and I have spent a lot of time going through all of Rolfe’s paper and email files, financial and medical records, etc. and shredding documents. His little shredder was in overload these past few days. Among some important documents I found an envelope with these words written on it: “To the one who has a legal right to read the enclosed…Bon Appetit!” Inside the envelope was a surprise: a fifty dollar bill with a sticky note attached that said, “If you are reading this, it’s yours! You may have to add to it to get one good meal.”

I just know that Rolfe had a good laugh from heaven when I discovered that note with the money. I can hear him laughing out loud when he wrote that note and put the money in the envelope. Cheryl and I had a good laugh, and I hope this story makes you laugh, too. Laughing is good for the body and the soul. Have you ever seen anyone frown while they were laughing? Have you ever noticed anyone angry when they were laughing?

Do something today to make someone laugh. A bigger challenge: do something today to make someone laugh even after you have gone to heaven.

P.S. we had that meal on Rolfe!