The Cost of Giving (Part III)

Level Three Giving – Emotional Energy

We all know time is money and money is time. If you are blessed enough to have a job and family responsibilities, time is the premium commodity. If not then money is more precious than time. Both, however, are external to the essence of our being. We can give time and money without the violation of our physic defense mechanisms. For this reason I believe that the gift of our emotional energy is more precious than the gifts of money or time.

Consider, how might I respond to the beggar who works a certain corner on my way to church most Sunday mornings? I drive by with my eyes forward and an expression of displeasure on my face, hoping he will go to the next car without any need for further contact. Another man might roll down the window and give the beggar some change. Someone, perhaps a little farther up the ladder might offer the beggar some money and a few words of encouragement, a small gift of time before the light turns green. A Saint, like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, would invest her time, her possessions, and her emotional energy in this man whom I consider an urban parasite.

Mother Teresa observed, “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” She spent her life pouring her emotional energy into the lives of discarded, unwanted people wherever she went. She was willing to offer herself as a living sacrifice in a manner that was meaningful to the unloved whether in the third world or the wealthiest country in the world, America.

My fearful heart has seen energy vampires that will take everything I could offer and demand more, people who are simply a black hole, people who can never be filled. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with such relationships. God tells me the outcome is none of my business, be obedient and leave the outcome in His hands.

Even if I am successful, would my neighbor understand the emotional energy I sacrificed for their well being? God tells me it doesn’t matter because He will know.

I have seen Christians who are doing a better job serving the Lord than I have managed. They can be found in homeless shelters, hospices, and even churches, wherever a person shares the burdens and concerns of another in an open and honest manner. I am not talking about the dispassionate expertise of the professional counselor, although, God knows, there is definitely a crying need in our churches for that skill. I am talking about the sacrificial gift of concern to another.

But there is still more.

Luke 16: 10-12

(10) Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
(11) So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
(12) And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?