He helps a great deal and none of it has ever cost him an afternoon.
He gives. He gives well, actually, and thoughtfully, and more than most people would guess from looking at his house.
He shares the appeals. He knows the arguments. He can tell you which approaches work and which are sentimental nonsense, and he is usually right.
And in eleven years, not one person has been inconvenient to him.
Nobody has sat in his kitchen for two hours. He has not missed a thing he intended to do because somebody needed him at the wrong moment. He has never carried anybody's bag up three flights, or waited in a corridor, or given up a Saturday.
His helping has a very particular shape: it happens at a distance, it is efficient, and it arrives without him.
And there is a man in his building whose situation he knows about in detail, and about whom he has thought a great deal, and who he has never once knocked on the door of.
He is forty-six. His generosity is real. It has never made him late for anything.
So let me ask you.
When did helping somebody last cost you your afternoon?
Read the logistics of it
Everybody knows the story of the Samaritan and almost nobody reads the transport arrangements, and the transport arrangements are the sermon.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.Luke 10:34
He put the man on his own donkey.
Sit with the physical consequence of that sentence for a moment, because the text does not spell it out and does not need to.
If the injured man is on the animal, the Samaritan is on foot. For however far it was. In the same afternoon he had planned for something else.
Luke 10 records a man giving up his own transport and walking the rest of that road himself, and the Spirit was in that plain exchange of places, so eleven years of help that has never made you late has never once been the shape of this.
Now let me speak to you as a friend, and I am not going to insult you by pretending your giving is worthless, because it is not.
The money is real. The thoughtfulness is real. Somebody is warmer this winter because of you and I am not going to sneer at that to make a point about proximity.
But watch what you have arranged, whether or not you meant to arrange it. Every route you help by is a route that arrives without you in it.
Luke 10 has the man going to him, which is a movement of a body toward another body, and the Spirit put that going at the front of the verse, which means the door in your own building that you have never knocked on has been the whole distance you were meant to cross.
And look at the sequence, because it is unglamorous and it takes hours.
Bandaged. Put him on the animal. Brought him to an inn. Took care of him. Then, the next day, paid.
The money is in the story. It comes fifth, after four things that cost him his day.
Luke 10 puts the paying at the end of a list of physical acts rather than at the start, and the Spirit ordered it that way, so giving that arrives before the presence has never been the story you thought you were living.
Now the turn, and it costs you an hour rather than a sum.
Be there in person, once, inconveniently.
Not more generously. Your generosity is fine. Go, with your body, to one particular human being, and let it take longer than it should.
Luke 10 has the Samaritan on foot beside his own animal with a stranger on it, and the Spirit was in that walking, so being put out by a person has never once been an interruption of the work.
Eleven years of efficient help. One afternoon.
Declare this over yourself
Say these where you can hear yourself. Know what holds them up. This authority is not yours by nature, it is Christ's, and in Christ it has been given to you, so you speak as one representing the King. And you speak under His will, never over it. However He answers, and in whatever way He comes, the outcome is His.
- Distance, you are how I have helped for eleven years and it has never once cost me the walk. Luke 10 says he put the man on his own donkey, which means the Samaritan finished that road on foot.
- Arrangement where every route I give by arrives without me in it, you have kept one door in my own building unknocked, and in the name of Jesus you are finished. The Spirit put the going to him at the front of that verse before any of the rest.
- Lord, Luke 10 lists the paying fifth, after four things that cost him his whole day. I am giving one hour to one named person this week and letting it run long, and my generosity has never once made me late.
Luke 10:34
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