Give And It Shall Be Given To You..............

.........pressed down, shaken together, a blessing that you cannot contain......

I have lived my adult life following the Biblical principle: Give when it hurts. Be especially glad about it. Rejoice in it, thank God for the opportunity.

So I did. This isn't going to set well with certain readers, I'm not sorry. Please ignore this "religious" posting if it offends you - or not - it really matters not to me.

I gave away a half ham; 2 2-pound chubs of 93% lean ground beef; 3 large packages of boneless, skinless chicken meat; several cans of tuna fish and some cans of lean chicken breast.

Why would you do that? Because I am a believer and a follower of Christ. That's the only reason I need or need give, if I even feel I "need" to give a reason to anyone.

There are many, many hungry families out there. I cannot possibly feed all of them, but I can help one of them, and I did. It is the highlight, for me anyway, of my staycation. I am doing nothing here, which is a grand feeling - put my mind into the frame of being at an (oil-free) beach, listening to the waves crashing on the sand and the sounds of people running and playing in the water, laying there with a sheet and taking it all in.

I'm not there and I can't be there, but I can put my mind into the mindset. I have done that. If you looked at my eyes right now, you would think I am not there. Here, but not here. In a distant place, far away. So it is.

If it has any meaning at all, it was a mother of several kids plus taking care of other people's kids who was broke and had nothing to look forward to for the next 8 days. And that's it. I didn't prolong the interaction, the food was handed off, the lady gave me a great big hug and she left.

I have been questioned throughout my life how I could possibly think to give away perfectly good food when I am in want myself. I can honestly answer that in every single occasion, God has risen to the content of my need and has taken care of me. I couldn't possibly "prove" to you that it was God, I put my trust and faith in Him. Whether anyone chooses to believe it or not is irrelevant to me. We are only going to be here for a fraction of a second in comparison to eternity, I would like to make the most of it - at least in the eyes of Him who matters most to me.

If I end up in a pauper's grave, then that is what I was destined to do, by Him and I will be perfectly content with it. Yes, I will sit here and fret about bills, I'm only human, but in the innermost being, I will believe that He will come through for me.

If you look at your life span - 70 years more or less - and contrast it to the time of known earth - perhaps you might see that you are not going to live very long here. Oh, your friends and family might say you lived a long life, in reality, none of us will live a "long" life. It will be "long" according to the temporal perception, it will be very, very short in contrast to eternity.....and yes, the Kingdom of Heaven.

I'm not patting myself on the back or attempting to lift myself up in any way, no, instead, I point to the Lord. He is our Maker. He is our Redeemer. He is the source of life and life eternal.

ben