Exchanging Time for Blessings

Exchanging Time For Blessings

 By Steve Keyes

What’s in the giving of a gift?  Well, there is usually some cost associated with purchasing it.  Even if it’s something you’ve made, the materials weren’t free.

Then there’s the cost of your time.  How valuable is that?  How much are you worth per hour?

So, we can agree, giving comes at a cost.  Should you give and expect nothing in return?  God tells us to.  Jesus modeled what it looks like to sacrifice selflessly.  The Bible is full of characters who sacrificed for the greater benefit, each of them giving but expecting nothing in return.

But does your giving actually offer you a return?  I’d answer that question with a definite YES!

Here at Northpark Christian Church, we are deeply invested in giving.  I’m not talking about that check you drop in the offering plate, although that in turn is used to support several other giving missions.  I’m talking about specific entities, some global, but some local.  Organizations you can become involved in and witness for yourself the good you help to spread.

Each fall, we participate in Operation Christmas Child.  This program is part of the Samaritan’s Purse/Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  Churches across the globe fill shoeboxes with personal items, bibles, and treats.  Samaritan’s Purse then distributes them to children in impoverished countries around the world.  Pictures posted on their website [hot link here] convey the sheer joy and appreciation these kids feel upon receipt of such ‘wealth’.  The impact on them is probably more than we in the developed world can imagine

Closer to home, Northpark has two other charitable activities which enable you to come face-to-face with the recipients.  You can see them and their reactions.  You can reach out and shake their hand.  The benefits they receive through a donation of our time and/or finances provide positive proof that Christian-spirited giving can work miracles.

One of these is our outreach to Kingwood Middle School.  The KMS outreach seeks to encourage teachers and staff at this school with cards, small gifts, and occasionally, breakfast or lunch.  Talking with these folks convinces us that our Christian love is appreciated.

Mission Northeast is in New Caney, and provides food, clothing and household goods as well as counseling services to generally lower income folks who are just trying to hang on.  Northpark supports them with periodic donations of physical goods as well as with our volunteering.  It is gratifying beyond description to meet these folks.  I’m always left with a strong sense of how deeply appreciative they are for the help they receive.

So, by all means, continue to do God’s work of spreading the Gospel through your financial donations.  But please also consider becoming involved with one of our local charitable endeavors.  The Church could use your help.  But more importantly, YOU will be blessed more than you can imagine.