Why do that?

I remember reading a story that took place in the Soviet Union.  I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but essentially Communist Party people came to some peasants.  The Communist state, of course, was anti-religious, but the peasants had traditionally been quite religious for a very long time.  So these Communists started “preaching” to the peasants, saying (and I paraphrase), “Why pray to God for your crops?  It is the tractor that makes your crops prosper.”  Okay, but what happened when the tractor arrived on the farm?  The peasants came to it, praying in thanksgiving and putting crucifixes on it.  It did not work out the way the Communists might have expected!

Today, we may come across those who wonder why we do what we do as Christians.  Sure, they may respect our activities; I do not wish to paint every non-Christian with the same brush.  But they may still ask “Why?”  I would imagine that giving money to the Church is one of these things that people in the World will look at and go, “Why are they giving away their hard-earned cash?”  Well, for someone asking this kind of question, I suppose you’d first have to convince him or her of the Gospel before they’d understand why we give our money and effort to the Church.  We do it because we believe it is good to physically help the Church in its spiritual work.  And we believe it is pleasing to God when we give and serve with a cheerful heart.

But think about what else our giving does.  A few months ago, we had a giving opportunity through the Church in order to help Middle Eastern refugees in Europe and to help European congregations cope with the sheer numbers of people coming in.  I do not know how much money was raised for that ministry, but however much it was, I am confident it was put to good use.  That’s a ministry with, may I say “tangible,” visible results.  Because of this, how could anyone, spiritual or non-spiritual, argue against helping such an effort?  And that goes for any other ministry we may support as a congregation.  In my view, with our giving and our prayers for that giving, God can work His will through it all, no matter how much or little we may be able to contribute.

~ Christian  Basar