A Poor Widow

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”Mark 12: 43-44 This portrait of the poor widow can be alarming. I love her radical trust in God, her radical generosity but also… This lady is off her rocker! I need my money. I’ve got kids. A mortgage. I need to eat. There are so many situations I have to take into account when it comes to how I spend my money. And so, I dismiss her example as an impossible ideal.  Because if I don’t dismiss her story and do so quickly the gap between what I say and what I do might begin to trouble me. The starting point of how we might begin to live into the radical freedom of the widow is that we realise we cannot.  And we encounter the God who can. A God who put his Spirit in us so that we can live in a manner worthy of all that he has done for us.  We are all called to be fully alive, full of trust and radically generous.  Avoid the temptation to water down the passage by making it abstract. It's an example of being radically different with how we use our money to the culture around us. Draw near to the presence of God - at church with one another and through reading Scripture. Righten your perspective of your relationship with God whether for the first time or the hundredth time. Then IN right relationship with him, listen and obey.  Ask God and look for the simple next step you can take into a life of radical trust in the abundance and generosity of God.