Welcome to the March 7th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week
This week, I reconnected to a practice I used to do often in the past.
As a way of grounding my faith, I would either read, listen or watch something from Christians who under difficult conditions still held on to their faith.
During the week, I added The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Bruchko by Bruce Olson, and God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew to my audiobook library. I had the books in the past but moving around due to work meant I couldn’t carry them with me.
I watched the movie version of Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand. I had read the book a while back.
Watching the movie had a way of refreshing my mind.
It is good to be reminded of the struggles that other Christians face every day just to live their faith.
It's a reminder that nothing I achieve makes me VIP to God - some of these Christians give their lives because of their faith in Jesus.
These inspire me to do more and not let the challenges that come with everyday living discourage me.
These Christians humble and inspire me to live my faith in more abandon to Jesus.
They remained joyful even in the face of overwhelming odds against their faith.
I want my faith to be alive like their faith.
Every day.
No turning bad.
No matter the odds.
Whatever it takes.
Things I Learnt
1-When We Don't get the Thank-you we Expect: A friend of mine called me during the week in a rather cathartic fit.
No, she wasn't angry at me. I was sort of her "release".
She and her husband had made a generous donation to a Christian Charity back in her home country. The charity was run by someone we both knew.
The first problem they had after the donation was the charity did not send an official acknowledgment of the donation. The donation had come from their company and they needed that for the tax authorities.
This was still going on when they got an email sending them a program budget and fund solicitation letter.
She was peeved. This was just less than a month after making that significant contribution. And she was still waiting for the formal letter of acknowledgment.
She sent them an email - "this is too soon". They responded that it was their way of letting them know the plans for the charity.
My friend was very annoyed.
I told her it's not completely unexpected. The lead of the charity has spent most of her leadership in church circles.
One of the things I notice with a lot of churches is that they don't know how to say "thank you" to the generosity of the congregation.
The simple assumption is that "we are asking people to give so they can be blessed. There is no reason to thank them".
I once heard a pastor during the commissioning of a milestone in his church declare that he did it debt-free. I smiled and thought "it's debt-free due to the generosity of the congregation". How I wish he could acknowledge the congregation who sacrificed to give and make it happen.
I told my friend to treat this as a teaching moment and discuss it with the leadership of the charity.
I look forward to when more Christian charities can receive the kind of commendation that Business management guru Peter Drucker gave the Salvation Army. Drucker referred to the Salvation Army as "The most effective organization in the U.S".
Not "faith organization", it's "organization".
Period.
2-Remembering I am not More Than Enough: These are difficult times for so many people.
It can be painful to get requests from people I’d like to help but there is only so much I can do.
In these times, I remind myself that one man can't meet all the needs that confront him every day.
I can only commit to doing the ones that I have the means to do.
I am not more than enough.
I am just enough for the needs I have to meet.
I can’t meet every need.
But I will keep trying to meet the needs that my means can meet.
It is the least that I can do.
The least that would make my Father in heaven happy
Postscript
May God give you courage and encouragement so you don’t let go of any promise He has given you. May you always be found faithful. Amen.
Tata,
Tola
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