Author R. Lee Sharpe (1872-1951) once told a great story about his dad. He wrote, “One spring day long ago Father called me to go with him to old man Trussell’s blacksmith shop. He had left a rake and a hoe to be repaired. And they were ready when we came, fixed like new. Father handed over a silver dollar, but Mr. Trussell refused to take it. ‘No,’ he said. ‘There’s no charge for that little job.’ My father insisted.
“If I should live a thousand years, I’ll never forget that blacksmith’s reply. ‘Sir,’ he said to my father, ‘can’t you let a man do something—just to stretch his soul?’”
There is nothing that stretches the soul quite like giving to, or doing something for, another person. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the stretching of our spiritual lives. One reason that the spiritual lives of many Christians are shriveled up like prunes is that they have never stretched their souls through sacrificial giving.
Jesus visited the Temple one day and observed how people gave their money. He is always interested in our giving because it is a thermometer that measures our spiritual temperature. He saw rich people who gave much and noticed a poor widow who dropped only two cents in the collection box. That was about as small an amount as a person could give. However, Jesus called his disciples’ attention to this lady and said that she had given more than all the rest.
There is a lesson here for us. The main factor in spiritual bookkeeping is not the total amount but the proportion. Generosity is giving what you could really use yourself. This lady gave all that she had, and in all probability she did not even have food to eat that night.
If I had been there, I would probably have said to the lady, “You shouldn’t be giving to the church. The church should be giving to you.” However, Jesus did not stop her. He would not prevent her from stretching her soul by giving this sacrificial gift.
No person can give sacrificially without enlarging his own spiritual capacities. Let me encourage you to give generously to your church and to charitable organizations. It will do something magnificent for your soul.