Message from a shoebox

I was so happy to hear our church reached our goal to send out 500 plus shoeboxes this last November through Operation Christmas Child (OCC).  Even though I had participated in OCC for more than 15 years this was the first year OCC really made an impact in MY life.  Here are three lessons I learned, and am still learning:


Lesson #1:  Yes, He can...and Yes, we can.

I still remember when we first determined we'd set the 500 box goal - part of me did NOT think we'd ever reach that goal.  After all, we had a congregation of about 280 people.  But while I doubted, another part of me knew God was calling me to witness the way HE moves and does HIS work.   It was so exciting when we realized, one week before our deadline, that we had ran out of boxes (we had ordered 500 boxes initially) and had to rush more boxes in!

As I involved my kids in the packing of shoeboxes I also became much more conscious of the abundance of resources we have here.  Even though we were making many more boxes this year than the usual 2 we really did not feel the 'pinch' in our finances.   (By the way, the 'logic' in previous years was first because there were 2 of us in the family, and later, because one box was for my son to pack and one for my daughter to pack!!!) - My kids still got their Christmas gifts, I still bought stuff for my family and friends and we still cooked feasts.  
I realized I have SO MUCH here.  If I was able to give to make a difference in children's lives without it even affecting my life, how much more of a difference could we make if we gave sacrificially! 

Lesson #2:  Cheap giving.
The process of buying stuff to fill these boxes made me think about my attitudes about giving.  I was tempted to just buy cheap stuff from the dollar store (don't get me wrong, there is some good stuff at Dollarama!).   I was tempted to just pack as many boxes as possible at the lowest cost possible!
I began wondering why I felt it was ok to just get cheap Made-in-China toys for these kids while I would go to Toys-R-Us to get the 'good stuff' for my kids or for their friends' birthdays.  
I started wondering about my attitude towards giving and packing these shoeboxes.  It made me think about this verse:

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” - Luke 21:1-4

Lesson #3:  Enough?  Not really.
After participating this year, and having packed more boxes than before, I did think -- "maybe I'm overdoing this".

But...was it really enough???

"Can we ever be comfortable in a world where there is such starvation?  Can we be 'at home' in a world where 12,000 women are killed each year in Russia alone as a result of domestic violence?  Or in a world where there are 300,000 child-soldiers fighting in armed conflicts?  Or where some 120,000 women and girls are trafficked across international borders each year?  Or where Africa is home to 30,000,000 people who are HIV-positive?" - Exiles, Pg 210

"No, it's not enough"...and "not often enough".

****

I did more than shopping for toys, paper and pencils this last November.  I did more than fold  nice red and green boxes with my kids.  Something happened as I was doing all this.  These boxes showed me a reflection of who I was, and where I needed to change.

"...the West [...] generally does little about the enormous suffering that occurs across our planet every day.  We might be good at a one-off appeal, but there is no real evidence of a general movement (or wave) of compassion or generosity sweeping through the West [...] Westerners continued to live as they always did, without allowing the scale of these tragedies to affect their ongoing spending patterns or priorities" ~ Exiles, pg 205

Will I heed to the call to let ministries like Operation Christmas Child affect

 my ongoing spending patterns and priorities?  

Will I give sacrificially or out of my abundance?  

Will I ever grow tired of doing good?

It is not enough to just give once in a while....

            from my excesses....

                                                                                      undermining God's power to multiply.

Not easy.  But the shoebox continues to remind me to find tangible ways in my life to make my giving pleasing to the One I'm giving to...this is what missional living is about too...