Saving up

Mike was expecting a raise at work. He’d done all they had asked but his boss told him that business was slow and he’d have to wait for a raise.

He was still stewing about how unfair this was when his older brother, Jeremy, called him. “Hey, bro’, just got an e-mail from Jenny.” Their cousin, Jenny, was working with an orphanage in Haiti.

“What’s up?” Mike asked.

“She’s trying to get a birthday club started for the kids there. She wants people to sign up to buy a birthday gift. I’m gonna sign up and I thought you’d want to know, too.”

“I can’t afford that,” Mike said. “The boss didn’t give me a raise. I got expenses, you know.”

“Hey, man, we’re rich compared to those kids. And you could send a little bit every month and never even notice it.”

Mike was silent. He’d already spent his raise in his mind, planning on saving for an Xbox 360 Elite. Now Jeremy wanted him to have less than he’d had before. This was going backwards.

But Mike had been reading in 2 Corinthians. And this verse popped into his head: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Cor 9:11)

Was Jeremy right? Was he rich? Not according to what he wanted to buy. But he’d seen Jenny’s pictures of those kids. They owned nothing. Even their clothes weren’t their own but went back into the clothes box when they outgrew them.

Well, this would be a great chance to see if God could keep his promises, Mike thought. I am kinda rich, maybe, and I wonder what would happen if I was generous? What would God do?

“Hey, Jer,” Mike said. “E-mail me the info. I’ll give it a try.”

Tomorrow: what God did