$100 Challenge

      A couple of Sundays ago Jeff's sermon was on the parable of the talents. He talked about how the master went on a journey and entrusted his talents to his 3 servants each according to their ability. One servant he entrusted 5 talents, one servant he entrusted 2 talents and one servant he entrusted one talent. When the master returned from his journey the servant with 5 talents had doubled it. The servant with 2 talents had doubled his and the servant with 1 talent had just that 1 talent. The master was upset with the servant with 1 talent. He had buried that talent and not even made an effort to use or increase it.


     At the end of Jeff's sermon he called 5 teams up front. Brian and I were one of these teams, each team was given a $100 bill and instructions to use this money in the next week in a way that glorified God. We were to come back the next Sunday and report what we had done and what we had learned. It sounds so easy it's 100 dollars and there are millions of things that we could do that glorified God. Brian and I both felt a pressure to do something really amazing but also to do something that God was telling us to do and not just something that we chose.

     Last week we spent the majority of the week talking with friends, praying asking God to show us, listening to other people's experiences, and talking to each other about where we felt that God was leading us. After countless prayers and conversations on Thursday night we decided what we would do. We gave our $ to a couple who have both been laid off within the last year and they are trying to raise their 9 year old grandaughter. We attached an annonymous letter with the money just telling them that this money was truly a gift from God and that we had prayed and we felt sure that God intended for them to be blessed with it. We also told them that we knew their finances were tight but we knew they had other gifts of their own that they could share with others. We asked them to please share their gifts for the glory of God. Gifts meaning time, prayer, a listening ear...the list is endless.

    On Sunday night all 5 teams went before the church to share what they had done with the money and also what lessons they had learned. We all had very similar experiences and we all learned similar things. Brian and I learned 2 very big lessons. The first, on Wednesday we listened to a CD of a pastor talking about this same type of challenge but one of the things that he said that struck me was this "In a Tale of Two Cities the book opens by saying "It was the best of times it was the worst of times" he said how sad is it that in church a lot of times we cannot differentiate the people going through the best of times with the people going through the worst of times? The people experiencing these best of times aren't sharing they aren't being open to allowing others to see their gifts' This hurt me because I felt guilty. God has given me so many gifts and so many times I don't share the things I am best at instead I bury them in the ground just like the servant in the Parable of the Talents.

    The second lesson was by far the most profound for us...All of last week we spent time trying to find someone that truly, in our eyes, deserved the money. Someone that wasn't going to waste it, someone that was going to really really appreciate it. We made stipulations on who should get this without even stopping to realize what we were doing. On Thursday night I layed awake and was just praying about this challenge and I realized how wrong we were. Jesus, precious Jesus he died for people who are going to waste it, he died for people who aren't going to appreciate it. He died for people who bury their gifts and their knowledge of Him. I laid in bed just thanking God. Thanking Him for the generosity, for taking a chance for giving His greatest gift even though He knew that so many would turn their backs or not appreciate it.

    As you can see the $100 challenge was a lesson but also a gift for me and Brian. May we all use the gifts that we are blessed with and share them with everyone even those that we don't feel deserve them.