I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a bit of a hero complex. I always wanted to be super man when I was a kid. (I still do, actually) Then when I saw the Thunderbirds, I wanted to be Jeff Tracy with a secret island in the pacific running International Rescue, saving people the world over from crazy disasters with just the right amount of technology and style. Then I wanted to have a whole lot of money, billions of dollars (who wouldn’t?), so that I could give crazy generously to things that needed money. (“Here’s a hundred million dollars for the orphanage.”)
Then there was tonight. Tonight was extra special. As I was walking back to my car from dinner, I was passing downtown buildings, imagining I was Jack Bauer in a gunfight with some terrorists. I didn’t act any of it out, but I did imagine most of how it would go down.
(Oh my goodness, and now I’m imagining this post being read in an open courtroom in 10 years when they finally decide to put me away forever because I’m crazy. I guess I’m not helping myself out very well writing all this down…)
I think the money thing in particular made me realize how I was full of it. Full of myself. Jesus praised the widow who gave away her last few dollars because she had tremendous faith in how much God would take care of her regardless. The men who gave more, had more. Their giving required much less faith.
What’s cool is that once you start thinking in this way, it’s really freeing. God doesn’t need you to have a billion dollars to give orphans help. You just need faith. A billion dollars doesn’t make faith easier, it just makes giving easier. And God doesn’t care about that, He has it all, but what He doesn’t have is your faith. He’ll bring the resources in.
The widow with two mites illustrates what I think is the highest compliment that can be paid to anyone: she was full of the Holy Spirit.
One of my favorite verses lately has been Act 4:8 where it talks about poor, cowardly Peter. The Peter that denied Jesus to a little girl three times is found a few weeks later to be boldly standing up and shouting down the very people that had Jesus crucified. How did such a change occur? “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit…”
This is the highest honor achievable. To be so transformed by Christ that His very spirit comes and indwells in us and simply takes over.
The greatest thing for any Christian is to pursue God so richly, so lovingly, so deeply that His spirit comes in and takes over. To be full of the Holy Spirit alone.