CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
Why We Give
Mark Drabenstott
I was heading home. I had spent two months touring Israel and was ready to go home. The last leg of my journey was from Nazareth to Tel Aviv. I had spent a month on a kibbutz and a friend in Tel Aviv was providing a bed for the night and a ride to the airport. I piled into a sherut, a shared taxi that could accommodate 6 riders. (In those days, a sherut was a stretched Mercedes 240 with an extra middle bench seat.) I was first in the queue, so I took the front passenger seat after putting my backpack and camera bag in the trunk. Little did I know that the front seat was somewhat cramped for my long legs. As we set out, the large passport case in my back pocket was scrunched against my lower back. So, I took it out and laid it at my feet.
Lost & Found
As we arrived at the outskirts of Tel Aviv, I explained to the driver that my friend lived on the north side of the city, right off the main boulevard we were on. He agreed to drop me off, rather than making me go all the way into the central city. We got to the right spot, stopped, and I told him I needed to get my things out of the trunk. I pulled them out, set them on the sidewalk and closed the trunk. He wove back into the traffic.
I reached to my back pocket and my heart leapt into my throat. My passport case, with all my money, was in that car. I started running—probably faster than I ever have. The car was getting away. I kept running. It stopped at a traffic light and I was gaining ground. The light changed and the car sped away. I bent over, hands on knees, heart pounding.
Suddenly a white car pulled over to the curb. The driver leaned over and swung open the passenger door. “You were trying to catch that taxi, weren’t you? Jump in and we’ll catch him.” He wove in and out of traffic, and at last we caught up to the taxi at another traffic light. I jumped out and ran to the passenger door. My passport case was right where I left it. He drove me back to my abandoned bags. Miraculously, they were still there.
I was filled with such deep gratitude. He had done an incredible thing for me—saved me from catastrophe, really. What could I do in return? He refused my offer of money. “No,” he said. “I wanted to help you.” It was the last time I ever saw him.
Gratitude
This was just a moment in my life, but I’ve never forgotten it. We’ve all had such moments of surpassing kindness and the sense of gratitude that follows. Our walk with Jesus, though, is not just a moment. It’s a lifetime.
What God has done for us through His Son is precisely why we give. Our Father has done something infinitely more valuable for me than the driver who helped me fetch my passport, helpful as that was. He has showered His grace on us, forgiving us of all our sins through His Son. That forgiveness is priceless. Yet it is also far less tangible than a passport.
Just how often are we filled with gratitude to give back for the grace God has so abundantly showered on us?
Mary Magdalene
A shining example of how God’s grace should motivate our giving is the life of Mary Magdalene. Her sins were many, yet Jesus forgave them all because of her faith. She was utterly overwhelmed with gratitude. She wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. As one translation puts it: “Her many sins have been forgiven; on this account she loved much” (Lk. 7:47 Emphatic Diaglott).
Mary desperately wanted to give back to her Lord for what He had done for her. And so she did—with relentless passion. She anointed Jesus’ head and feet with expensive perfume before his death. She was there for him at the cross, giving her presence while he gave his life. She went to his tomb to anoint him yet again.
She went to the tomb to give back still more. But instead, she received—the glorious news that Jesus was risen.
Our Response
Our good works do not earn us eternal life. God’s grace is a gift we can never repay. What we can do is give back for God’s grace. Like Mary Magdalene, we can give until there are no more ways to give. Indeed, Mary was so focused on giving that when she discovered the tomb was empty, she said to the angel, please tell me where they’ve taken him, and I will lay him to rest again.
Jesus summarized Mary Magdalene’s life with these short words: She did what she could (Mk.14:8). Let that be said of us by our Lord. Let us do all that we can. And let us give for the best reason of all—for all He has done for us.