WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
I just saw a video adapted from an old story. You know, the one about a widow struggling to pay her late husbands debt & at a brink of losing her kids to the creditors? Yeah, that one. In her desparation, the poor widow calls out for help from a man of great inluence. This guy, has connections in highest place. But when he comes to her, he does not give her the cash or promise to deal with the loan-sharks, as one would expect. He asks her a bunch of questions instead. One actually. One question. But a crappy one in my opinion. “What do you have?” he asks. Come on. Who does that? I mean, the poor woman is a widow & some greedy shylocks are threatening to seize her kids as ransom. Freak! Not even the bailiffs would seize kids in the name of repaying a dead man's debts. Anyways, in the story, the influencial man asks the woman, “what do you have?”
Just like me, she couldn't believe he was asking her that. By the way, this man of influence was, supposedly, friends with the widow's late husband. So of course he knew better than to ask what she had. But, she responded “I have nothing”. At that point, I said almost to myself: “I could have told you that.” So, here is a poor helpless widow, lonely & confused and about to lose her kids... and the only guy who could help her is asking what she has. And she had NOTHING!
Except, of course, she had a little oil. If you know this old story, you will remember that her little oil turned out to be a lot. A whole lot. She ends up paying her debt and went on to live off the rest of her endless supply from the LITTLE OIL she had. So what about you?
What Do You Have?
In this season's lessons from my Father, he has been teaching me lots about this. He knows I love stories, so he has been using different stories to make the point. These are old farmiliar stories, all of which I'm sure you know very well. The POOR WIDOW had A LITTLE OIL & with it she paid her debt and lived off the rest. A young SHEPHERD boy named DAVID had a SLING and with it HE KILLED A GIANT. The EXILED FUGITIVE named MOSES had a STICK and with it he BUILT A HIGHWAY across the sea. A LITTLE STREET HAWKER had 5 loaves of bread & 2 fish and with them Jesus fed a multitude. A famous FISHERMAN named SIMON once used his skill to pay his taxes and likewise for his BOSS! And there are plenty more stories and examples.
So, what do you have? Anything. Small, tiny, insignificant. Anything? A talent. A skill. A passion. A gift? Anything. Still think you have nothing? Think AGAIN.
