welcome to the story.

Read this in none other than Leonard Sweet's Soul Tsunami this afternoon. Thought it was cool. By the way I'm not a slow reader, its just a 400 page book. He quotes Erma Bombeck in a column she wrote entitled "What's Saved Is Often Lost." I don't save anything. My pockets are empty at the end of a week. So is my gas tank. So is my file of ideas. I trot out the best I've got, and come the next week. I bargain, whimper, make promises, cower and throw myself on the mercy of the Almighty for just three more columns in exchange for cleaning my oven . . . . Throughout the years I've seen a fair number of my family who have died leaving candles that have never been lit, appliances that never got out of the box . . . . I have learned that silver tarnishes when it isn't used, perfume turns to alcohol, candles melt in the attic over summer, and ideas that are saved for a dry week often become dated. I always had a dream that when I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will be like this: "So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?" And I will answer, "I've nothing to return. I spent everything you gave me. I'm as naked as the day I was born." The question is not "How much do I give to God of what is mine?" but "How much of God's do I give away? How much do I use?" This applies to finances, time, thoughts, resources. Its a theology of receiving versus a theology of giving. We are not called to give. We are called to invest what we have received from God, in the work of His kingdom. "The flowing out of God always demands a flowing back." - Jan Van Ruysbroeck