a crumpled $10 bill

I did a classic double-take as I noticed the name on the offering envelope, “Cynthia” and “Daryl”. Inside the offering envelope there was just one crumpled $10 bill, but there was so much more. Cynthia and Daryl are homeless. They get a small disability check every month, but it isn’t enough to survive on. Cynthia and Daryl go to local food banks and other charities to get basic necessities. Cynthia told me the other day that when thy get their check they use the money to stay in one of our cheap hotels on cold nights. She told me that after the check runs out (and it always does before the end of the month) unless they are able to find someone who will take them in, they ride the city bus at night as long as they run just to be out of the cold. Cynthia explained to me that a day pass on the bus is about $5 per person and that they could usually barrow or panhandle that much.

As I looked at the crumpled $10 bill in Mosaic’s offering, I felt a bit guilty realizing that the $10 represented a night out of the cold on a bus. I struggled to come up with a time when I had given that much. I suppose ten bucks is the inflationary adjusted equivalent of widow’s mite that we read about in Mark 12, that that caught Jesus’ attention. That offering represented real faith, real sacrifice… it epitomized the true humble, generous nature of true Christianity. 

I am constantly amazed at what I am learning from my neighbors. Because of my friends Cynthia and Daryl, I see more clearly my selfishness, God’s goodness and the simple yet profound faith of the spiritual giants that God allows me to hang out with here in Original Aurora.