Do you remember when Oscar Schindler broke down because he wished he sold his watch, his car, everything he owned so he could save Jews from death? It was powerful, and he is correct. If we can give up material possessions to save someone else’s very life, we should readily do it. I think it should be our responsibility if we get financially stabilized so we’re not worrying about our own next meal, that we help the poor. You can find people with poverty problems in every country that are going hungry. There are some places where people are dying when all they need is 33 cents worth of food and water for the day. That tears on my heart when I think about it. But it also makes me realize this is something we can fight as individuals and as society. The cost of eliminating hunger world wide is less than a fraction of what it takes to keep up the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To me, a smart battle plan would be to get a lot of people to like us as kind hearted people, so they wouldn’t want to terrorize us, but that is just me. If people had the reign over their government, maybe that would happen, but we have little control over the government. Christianity is about personal choices, and God sees our heart. Remember the widow’s mite, she gave all that she had, and to Jesus, that mattered more than the rich men giving of their abundant wealth. So any little bit you can help will be good. I won’t tell you which charity to give through, and your economic status might be one where you don’t even have a job or a house of your own. Just if you are able to give up on luxuries you can go without, do so. I want everyone to always think of your money in terms of lives you could possibly save with it. Eliminating hunger and thirst from this planet should be this generation’s goal.
Lately, I’ve been being pulled to labor more for the Kingdom. My coworker wants me to step up my hours worked, and yes, I don’t work a great deal before. I would put in about 4 hours a day when I worked on my last video game, maybe as little as 2 or 3 a day after things were averaged. In my defense, I didn’t get paid anything until the game was finished. It is sometimes hard to get yourself to work for a year and a half when you don’t get paid on your job. Now that we have gotten paid on this previous job, my coworker makes the point,”Now that you know we can make money, lets try and treat this like a real job.”
Another reason I’ve been pulled to labor more is that I know everything we do for the Kingdom of God matters. This game we’re going to make will have strong Christian concepts. You’re going to play it and enjoy doing good. You’ll be a hero in the name of Christianity. It is only fantasy, but we’re hoping we plant seeds in people who want to become true heroes of Christianity. You do know there is such a thing right? In God’s kingdom, there will be great ones and lesser ones. The great ones will be the ones who didn’t get a chance in this world, and the ones who were given much and used it to help the ones who didn’t get a chance. Yes, all you need is Jesus to be saved. But if you use that as an excuse to do nothing, you’re really missing out on a host of Heavenly rewards. *1
Another reason I’ve been pulled to labor more is church the past few Sundays. Church has said some things that relate to my work life. One time I told my coworker I’m upset with the long road we’re taking. He made me do a task which took three months, but I don’t think moved us forward. I’m not here to say who is right and who is wrong, but it was a great deal of work on my part. Before the three months of work, I told the guy,”I don’t like the move. I want to move straight on to something else instead.”He put his foot down, and would not work with me if I didn’t do it. I basically told him,”I value your friendship, and I will work for three months if the only reason was too keep your friendship.” I then said as Peter said to Jesus,”To whom else would I go? This is the only chance I’ve gotten in 9 years since I came out of school, and I wasn’t even looking for something as specific as a Christian video game company.” Well the Sunday before last, the confessionary involved,”Lord, to whom would we go.” and it made me start thinking the LORD wants me to work harder in my job.
The idea that the LORD wants me to work harder in my job was reinforced this past Sunday with the entire Sermon dedicated to hard work. It is a good sermon too because I was playing Poker earlier in the day(didn’t know it was Sunday), and I thought to myself,”I’m a great poker player. All I need to do is put some time into this, and I’ll bankroll my $100 into paying off my student loans. Then after my student loans are paid off, I can start trading in stocks. Stock trading will be fun too. That would be easy.” The thought wasn’t so serious that I wanted to act on it, but I did think,”What is stopping me from taking the easy route is the hard route I’m on.” Who knows, with a lot of problems at work, I might have put more weight into doing it easy.
For a moment let us examine the dangers of Poker. Let us say someone who doesn’t know how to play profitably plays, or even just someone who doesn’t know how to bankroll manage. You can lose a literal fortune playing Poker. Let us say a Christian earns all his money through Poker. Then when he is leaving a legacy for his children to follow, they find out he was a Poker player. If they don’t get instruction, they might lose all their money. Poker might be good for a single person, but when you become a role model and people want to be like you, Poker isn’t good for the average Joe off the street.
Well the Sermon went on to say that the world does need change. There are people starving to death and all they need is a fraction of a dollar a day to not die. Millions die each year, and it would be economically feasible to feed them all if they had enough money to demand food. So we should not be lazy and relax even if we have enough money to live off on our own. I know my own personal temptation is to go,”Okay, make sure I have enough for food and bills, then just lose myself in video games.” That seems like a perfect plan for inner peace, but it doesn’t work if you have empathy. We’re called to have empathy for others. I hate to be a jerk, but when you’re playing a video game think,”Could I be out making money to help the poor?” I know it isn’t a fun thing to think about: Working our hardest as long as we can endure work. It is far more fun to go,”I’m gonna chill out and not be stressed.” But as long as people are starving to death for lack of money, I think we should be working our hardest. And if we can’t find a job for what we went to college for, we should be mowing lawns and doing the jobs no one else wants to do. Yes, it royally sucks. Yet, when you consider that God sees your sufferings, it can bring Heavenly rewards far greater than anyone can even dream of receiving on Earth.
The sermon said about someone who was in fight mode. Fight mode means you struggle to do what you’re doing day in and day out with the least amount of rest you require. Fight mode is taking to life the notion that all of life is a gigantic battle where the rest is in the next life. Western society is troublingly too easy. We get paid exceptionally higher than third world countries. We generally have water at a tap, and enough money for food. You’re probably reading this from a computer that has Internet. With proper strategy, you can get enough wealth so you don’t have to do much of anything. If you can get to the point where you can just relax and sustain yourself with your favorite hobbies, you’d think that is optimal. The idea of early retirement is a grand one. In fact retirement at all is something people cherish. But we should be working as long as we’re capable. We should be in fight
mode. Think about it. If you can mow two lawns over 4 hours, and you just make 10 dollars for it, and you do it for as long as you are physically able. Figure you’re only mowing for half the year, so 5$ a day. It takes .33 to give food and water to someone who would otherwise die. So you could save and sustain 15 people from death! When you get to Heaven, don’t you think God would be happy for you? 10 dollars a day doesn’t seem like a lot, but if that is all you’re able to do, and you fought through it with physical work and never gave up, don’t you think God will praise you? He will. He might let you rule your own corner of Heaven Proverbs 22:29 GNT Show me someone who does a good job, and I will show you someone who is better than most and worthy of the company of kings. And what about the 15 people who would have otherwise died if it wasn’t for you. Don’t you think they’d give you their thanks too? I used this as an example because I think everyone can manage to make 10 dollars a day if they’re willing to do great personal effort. What more can you do if you try harder and make more?
Remember the Widow’s Mite? *2 Many people will bring that topic up in terms of how much one should give. It isn’t how much you give, but the relation to how much you have to give. The problem that arises is one can go,”Well I’m 20 years old. I have 1$ in cash to my name. I just gave 1$ to the church, now I’m at 0$. Isn’t that like I gave like the Widow and deserve praise by God?” And the answer is no you don’t deserve a ton of praise for that though it is a nice gesture. The thing you forgot is you have time. You have time to make more money and give more. If you spend the rest of your life working hard, living as frugally as possible, and giving all the rest of your money to the church, then wow, you deserve great praise! Yes, God will praise you if you work your entire life for the church and for the poor. There is no doubt in my mind that if you accept Jesus, and work hard for the poor, you’re not only making it into Heaven, you’re getting great rewards too. It is scriptural. Matthew 13:44 GNT “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.”
Another thing the sermon from last Sunday said was there was a man who worked hard. He worked hard as I describe we all should be working. When a woman asked him,”You work yourself too hard. You don’t need to work this hard to live. Look around, there are plenty of people who get by without working themselves hard.” To which he replied,”The reason I need to work so hard is that the others aren’t working hard themselves.” You could have 1000 people text in 10$ through their phone for an emergency. Or you could just have one person work themselves to the bone so they can donate $10,000. I’m trying to make a call for extra workers here. It is like,”Yo, look at this desperate situation. We need your help in it. Lets feed as many souls as we can before we get our own souls ferried to Heaven!” Maybe with some more people on this journey, we can fix the problem.
There is a notion going around the Christian community: God provides for us, and God doesn’t need our help. This is true, but it is no excuse to be lazy. A person might go,”But doesn’t the scripture say,’The yolk I put upon you is easy and you can find rest for your souls'”. I think what was meant by that is that the reward when we get to Heaven is so great that our work getting to there doesn’t seem like much. A person who doesn’t believe in the afterlife who’s loved one dies is a tragic event because they don’t know where they went and likely cannot cope. Death isn’t easy for a Christian either, but we know we’ll see our loved ones in Heaven which makes living easy and casual. There’s nothing that is all too serious on Earth that won’t be fixed when God wipes our tears away in Heaven. So even working the hardest job as a Christian is easier than working the hardest job as a non-believer. A Christian has rest to look forward to, so they can expend themselves here on Earth. I don’t know what a non-believer thinks, but if this was all there was, I’d probably slack off and immerse myself in video games and beer the rest of my life.
We know the scripture,”Matthew 6:24 GNT You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” And this is Good News. If you lead a minimal life, and you’re a pastor, you’re set. But if you’re not a pastor, and you do a regular job, you should donate a ton to help the poor. The scripture does not say,”Despise making money for money is evil” We’re allowed to make money, but it should not be our master. The simple fact that you give it away shows that money is not your master. You’re fighting to earn it hard for God, not for yourself. So you are serving God when you strive to make money that you’ll give away.
In all this, there is nothing wrong with being rich provided you don’t waste tons of money when you are rich. There are two strategies you can employ when living for the poor. The first strategy is obvious: Donate all your excess to the poor immediately. This strategy fails when bad things happen to you where you need money in reserve and you have no savings. The second strategy takes effort: Once you get excess money, invest. Then later in your life, help more poor people with your extra money. The problem with the second strategy is that if you don’t help the poor even a little while you’re investing, you might die, and someone inherit your money and spend it wasteful. This is the message about the parable of the man who built bigger barns. Luke1 15 And he went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.” 16 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. 17 He began to think to himself, “I don’t have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? 18 This is what I will do,’ he told himself; “I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. 19 Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’ ” 21 And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight.”
It is important when you are helping the poor to think,”Do I want to invest, or do I want to immediately give?” I think the answer is to,”Give a little immediately, invest a lot.” Then if you ever come down with a sickness where you will ultimately die, or you merely become old and the chances of you dieing are greater, then donate to the place you researched your life. The best place to give through should probably be Christian. At the writing of this article, I go with Food For the Poor, but I don’t know a great deal about how they operate. Maybe if you become wealthy enough, you’ll even make one yourself. The closer the charity gets to 100% given to the poor, the better. But even then, money can be spent in ways that help them indirectly. You really gotta do your research on who you give through. Not all these places are reputable.
In conclusion, let us make it this generation’s goal to make sure that no one goes hungry or thirsty. If you’re on board with me, just work your hardest to make money. Once you have a house, and basic living expenses paid, and debt paid off then donate to the poor. Sure have a little savings for minor emergencies, but past that start to invest in your own ways(stocks/bonds/mutual funds). Keep working in all of this. Give the poor some, but build up as much wealth as you can to be able to make a bigger impact later in life. And in all this, never fall into the temptation to use your wealth for greedy things. If you think you might fall tempted to using great wealth for greedy things later in life, then simply give of your money to the poor as it comes and don’t invest as much. The thing to take in all of this is that we should work really hard so we can help the poor.
One final thing: Do we work on the Sabbath? Jesus worked on the Sabbath to heal. Isn’t feeding people who would otherwise die similar to healing? So yes, if you have the energy, work on the Sabbath, but give everything you make on it to the poor! This means if you get paid salary, in addition to your 10% tithe, you should give 13% to the poor(1/7th of a week). I know a lot of jobs force you to work on Sunday in the modern time, and that really isn’t allowed by the way God set it up. However, if you work for the express purpose of helping the poor, then you’re doing as Jesus did: Helping others in need on the Sabbath.
Actually a second final thing: If you feel run down, and you can’t press on anymore for work, just take a break. Working dedicated for the poor is something we should all do, but if it is grinding your gears down too hard, take a break. It can be a short break of a few hours. Maybe you need a few days. Maybe even a few months if you had complete emotional breakdown. So if you’re new to this you don’t want to fall completely apart, pace yourself. This hard work is supposed to be fun because you’re going to God,”Yo, I don’t want people to die. I have enough to eat and drink myself, so I am striving so other people have enough to eat and drink.” You’re taking up the position of champion, and you’re to be praised by God. You’d think people would praise other people who are self sacrificial to help others, but not all people are respectful or have their priorities in order. This is why us people who do have our priorities in order need to work even harder. But yes, if you’re getting annihilated, take a break. I’m gonna take a short one right now after writing this. Proverbs23:4 Be wise enough not to wear yourself out trying to get rich.
-Jim Sager III
*1 1Corinthians 3:11 For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid. 12 Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw. 13 And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. 14 If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. 15 But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.
*2 Mark 12: 41 As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; 42 then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. 43 He called his disciples together and said to them, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. 44 For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had – she gave all she had to live on.”
Extra verses:
Matthew 16:25 GNT For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.