ACT 20: LAST SMARTIE

MARCH 29, 2022

 

It's often said that the way to tell whether someone loves you is to see whether they'll give you their last Smartie. Whether it's our last Smartie (the red one) or our favourite something else (fill in the blank), sometimes we get a bit clingy about the possessions we have. When the stuff we own starts to own us, it's time to re-evaluate the situation.

Let us begin today with this. What are you holding onto too closely? Could it be your favourite articles of clothing, your second, third or fourth guitar, or a piece of jewellery, _______________? Or perhaps you have something smaller, a book(s), movie or music collection that has grown out of hand.

[Jesus] said to them, ‘… life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’ (Luke 12:15)

My Dad had a set of tires in our attic from an old vehicle, He kept the tires because they were still good, had some descent tread left, you know “Never know I might need them” kind of thing. One night at supper he talked about giving these tires to a United Church minister that he knew. I was, flabbergasted, astonished, amazed, even a bit angry that my dad just gave the tires away, did not ask for any money, did not trade the tires for anything. Just gave the Minister the tires. “Why, would you do that Dad?” My Dad’s response was I had the tires, and this man needed them. My Dad was teaching me what Jesus was teaching, that life is more about living with an “open hand” in generosity, than it is holding tightly to “an abundance of possessions.”

When Jesus encounters a man who loves his possessions (in Mark 10, The Rich Ruler), he tells him, ‘One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor…’ He doesn’t say this to everyone he meets, but he’s very clear about the prescription for this young man. My belief is that this was the specific remedy for the greediness that afflicted him. At times I have really struggled with letting go of some of my stuff in the same way. Can you relate?

I wish I could say that the lesson my dad taught me that day really stuck to me, that from that day forward I lived with an “open Hand”, I held all things loosely, but it was not the case. There will likely be a moment today when I will need to decide whether I will choose to live by the “open hand” or the closed gripping fist.

While I struggle with this kind of generous living, I can tell you that anything I have ever released to assist someone else, I have never needed or been without when I did need it. I don’t know if my father’s generosity is the reason but until his last day of life, he had good tires with descent tread on his vehicle.

Live today with an open hand. Live today with eyes and heart wide open to the opportunity that just may come your way, to give what you have as an act of generosity to assist someone’s life. I can promise you this, when you do, they won’t be the only ones that receive a blessing.