Two well-to-do Christians, a lawyer, and a merchant, joined a party that was going around the world. In Korea one day they saw a field by the side of the road, and in the field a boy pulled a crude plow while an old man held the plow handles and directed it through the rice paddy. The lawyer was amused and took a snapshot of the scene. ‘That’s a curious sight,” he said to the missionary who was interpreter and guide. “Yes,” was the reply. “That is the family of Chi Noui. When the church building-was built they were eager to give something, but they had no money; so they sold the only ox they had and gave the money to the church. This spring, they are pulling the plow themselves.”
The lawyer and the businessman were silent for moments. Then the businessman said, “That must have been a real sacrifice!” “They did not call it that,” said the missionary. “They thought it was fortunate they had an ox to sell.”
The two tourists did not have much to say, but when they reached home the lawyer took the picture to his minister and told him of the incident. “I want to double my pledge to the church,” he said. “And give me some plow work to do. I have never known what sacrifice for the Lord really means. I am ashamed to say that I have never given anything to Him that really cost me something.”
This is a true story. I pray it will be repeated many times in the coming years.
Borrowed from John Clayton’s “Does God Exist?”
And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two copper coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”
Luke 21:1-4