According to their ability they gave……

Remember where we left off yesterday?

The people have returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and restore their temple after seventy years in exile in Babylon. Most of them will never have experienced anything other than exile. Most of them will not have ever seen Jerusalem before. And their response?

According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver and 100 priestly garments.  Ezra 2:69

According to their ability they gave……

We are asked to give all the time, aren’t we? Give money to good causes and charities, to the work of God and church, towards a leaving present for a colleague, to a friend in need, to support a club, to sponsor someone…..

And it’s not just money. There are demands on our time, our energy, our attention, our resources…situations in which we are required to give…

So how do we know how much to give? How much is enough? How little can we get away with? What are we expected to give? How much is a sensible amount? How much does God want us to give? What do other people want me to give?

According to their ability they gave……

I love this phrase. It sets us free from formulas and expectations. There is not a fixed calculated amount. I’m not a fan of tithing, never have been. I can see it is a useful guideline for some, but actually, I find it an unhelpful straitjacket. Most of the time, across the whole of our lives, we are called to give so much more than 10% – everything we have is God’s and of His own, do we give Him – that’s 100%! And God’s work on earth is not limited to what is labelled as God’s work (imo)……so giving becomes much broader and freer and more creative!

I love giving. Giving of myself and my time and resources. It comes pretty easy to me. I see need and want to meet it. That’s the way I’m wired.

So I constantly disappoint myself. I always fall short. I never feel I have done enough, given enough. This can be pretty crippling at times.

A couple of years ago, I read a book that changed my life. I can’t remember the title; I no longer have the book. But it caused a paradigm shift in my thinking that I still find extremely helpful and I’d like to share it with you here.

Being the best you can be every minute of every day can be utterly exhausting if you set a fixed standard. An immovable bar of being the very best of the very best version of yourself that you can achieve on your very best day. Actually, that moment can only happen once in your entire life. It may have already happened. It may never happen again.

And how hard it is to live constantly with an equally unrealistic goal of being what you wish you were or your parents have always expected you to be or what you should be compared to other people…..?

Do you see what I’m getting at?

With a standard like this, you are destined to fail. Pretty much all of the time. Because this standard does not allow for changes – internal changes and external changes. The best you can be or bring or give in any given situation is different to what it was yesterday, even to what it was an hour ago. It depends on the demands that have been placed on you, what you are going through, how you are feeling physically, emotionally or mentally. We all have good days and bad days, good hours and bad hours (although ditching ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and finding a new vocabulary could revolutionise our lives too) – whether we suffer from unpredictable back pain, insomnia, raging hormones, depression, anxiety, fybromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, the after effects of chemotherapy etc etc etc or whether we are going through an emotionally draining time with a teenager or sleepless nights with a baby or a mid life crisis or caring for a parent etc etc etc…..

All we can bring in any particular moment is the best we can bring and be in that moment, taking into consideration who we are and how we are in that moment. And that is enough.

Hear that, people?

THAT IS ENOUGH.

That is OK.

That is all that you can do.

That is all that can be expected of you.

Find acceptance in this truth.

According to their ability they gave……

It will set you free.

So stop worrying about what anyone else thinks. Stop trying to match up to their expectations. Stop trying to be more like someone else.

And stop worrying about what God thinks. He knows better than anyone what you are going through and what you are capable of in this moment.

And stop setting yourself unrealistic standards that you can never meet.

Be the best you can be today. Give what you can today.

According to their ability they gave……