There was an article in The Sunday Times last week written by Nicholas D. Kristof from The New York Times: Kevin Salwen, a writer and entrepreneur in Atlanta, was driving his 14-year old daughter, Hannah, back from a sleepover in 2006. While waiting at a traffic light, they saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other.
"Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal," Hannah protested. The light changed and they moved on, but Hannah was too young to be reasonable. She pestered her parents about inequity, insisting that she wanted to do something.
"What do you want to do?" her mum responded. "Sell our house?"
And sell the house they did. Selling their luxurious family home, they donated half the proceeds to charity and used the other half to buy a more modest replacement home. The crazy, impetuous and inspiring project is chronicled in a book due to be published, entitled The Power of Half.
The family eventually pledged US$800'000 to sponsor health, microfinancing, food and other programmes for about 40 villages in Ghana. Hannah, a high-school junior hoping to become a nurse, says, " Everyone has too much of something, whether it's time, talent or treasure. Everyone does have their own half, you just have to find it."
The article brought me many months back when God made it very plain and clear that I'd to give Alisha the money meant for the new roadbike I had been praying and yearning for. It helped me to see how our wants can cost someone else their need; It taught me, that loving God and people requires sacrifice at times; More importantly, the article challenged me to consider, that our characters may be judged not only by what we give away, but also, by what we have and keep.
My new bike, called Faith, is finally coming. The adaptor finally came. And though we're still waiting for the wheels to be shipped in, my dear friend has decided to lend me hers in the meantime so Faith can be ready by my birthday next week. Over Chinese New Year, we have been buying many things, shopping around for affordable parts to build Faith from scratch. If it had not been for the fact that my friends bought the bike frame for me, and my parents were so touched by their gesture that they insisted on paying for the rest of it instead of allowing my friends to donate their bike parts to me, I think it would have been utter agony trying to buy a bicycle for myself.
These wheels could buy an orphanage a television set. The groupset/gears could sponsor five African children's education for a year. The installation cost could buy 30 kids a meal they would never forget. Reality is stark, even in our society of instant gratification.
I have been lucky. Blessed beyond words. Some days I wake up knowing I deserve none of it, and that the day will come where I start working and can no longer rest in the luxury of daddy's pampering. There will come a day where nothing but conscience and the steel of will would stand in the way of myself and an extra pedicure, a more expensive piece of clothing, a better bike. There will come a day I can no longer rest in blissful ignorance, and will have to make choices against my natural will. And that would be the true test of character.
Would I have the heart to find my half to give away?
I am glad God worked things out, bringing me back to Ophthalmology in a roundabout way. I know, if it had not been so, I would forever despise myself and doubt my sincerity for the subject. Now, I finally see my genuine love for it, though the glamour factor, the comfort and the prestige of the specialty will forever remain a potential snare, and an evil temptation. Even the doctors themselves admit this specialty is a particularly worldly one.
Someday, I would make my own money. Chances are, if I do surgery which I love, I may even have more than I require. But perhaps, it is not how much I make, but how much I give away that determines my standing with God. Perhaps, it is not even how much I give away, but what I keep for myself that does so.
And it humbles me to know that God is teaching me about these things, even now, so I understand the meaning of prudence, self-control and gratitude. I have been challenged of late to look at not only what I give away, but what I buy, consume and own.
It has been, to say the least, sobering.
Do I really need a tri-suit to take part in a triathlon. Do I really need those more expensive wheels to match the rest of my bike. Do I really need to spend money going overseas to study, or is there a genuine purpose behind it?
I have just been thinking.
So that someday, when God calls me to sell my house or give to the poor, or take in children, and give my bike away, it would be a little bit easier, and less difficult, maybe, to find my half to give away.
What is your half?
"Do not be afraid when one becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dies he shall carry nothing away..."
-Psalm 49:16-17
"Men of high degree are a lie;
If they are weighed on the scales,
They are altogether lighter than vapor...
If riches increase,
Do not set your heart on them."
- Psalm 61: 9-10
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