Count Your Blessings, & Share Them If You Can

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<Jesus said>, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”’ (Matthew 16:26); ‘When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.’ (Proverbs 11:10)

I had my doctor’s appointment yesterday in Sarasota, and I am officially in good health, and was told everything looks copacetic (except for my A1C level, which is right at 7.0), including a slightly higher triglyceride level, which is offset by the LDC cholesterol being down.  I have my next checkup in March, with the advice I should continue my weight loss (yes I am losing weight, believe it or else), which I will do despite the Christmas season coming in full swing. 

It’s probably a good time to ‘harden up’, in terms of Army vernacular, and get into some other shape than ‘round’.  So now I’ll have to motivate myself (better yet, ask the Lord to motivate me) to start some physical regimen to partially regain the form of Adonis I had as a young ‘Studly Doo-right’ as I attempt to lose the form of the ‘Michelin Man’ I have now.  (Likely I’ll end up somewhere in between the two.) Fortunately, the drive to Sarasota was sunny and not so frantic, as was the drive back. 

I drove ‘old Red’, a Kia Forte I used for commuting to Tampa for about four years before COVID and work shifted to being ‘at home’.  It’s been outside for the hurricanes and it looks rough (having the paint sandblasted by the winds), though it runs fine. Now that I retired, it is more the ‘work’ car for shopping and generally running around. It is a good thing I have ‘old Red’, as my loving spouse had our primary car, ‘old Silver’, take her to church to serve a function there. ‘Silver’ is also a Kia Forte, a couple of years newer but kept in the garage and driven less. It’s paint is still looking very well for an eight-year-old car.

We also have ‘Wilbur’ an old Jeep that often finds itself in various states of disrepair but it available for short trips when needed (or when the streets flood during hurricanes – an occurrence that seems to be happening more often). Shirley and I often take for granted the blessing it is to now have three running vehicles in the driveway/garage. This ‘taking for granted’ usually goes away when one of them goes into the shop for maintenance, then I’m thankful to have the blessing of multiple vehicles and the blessing to afford the maintenance of them. I do have to be careful not to go ‘cheap’ when it comes to maintenance, as I tend to want to do.

It’s also a blessing to have multiple cars when one of our friends, when their car goes on the fritz, needs to borrow one to go to work to use while their car is being repaired. This doesn’t happen too often, but it’s good to share our blessing of having multiple cars to lend out to lift a burden from another. The thought process is they are not my cars but the Lord’s cars. That said, I need to be a good steward and discernment is used when loaning them out; a person who is not known to me, or known to be reckless and uncaring, is not going to get one to borrow.

I am reminded of the story of Hettie Green, who I learned about through the Guinness Book of World Records (when I was a voracious reader in my adolescence).  She was worth in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s over $95 million (about $2 billion today), having been a very successful financier at a time when women were often scorned for being in such a field of endeavor at that time.  Yet, according to Guinness, Mrs. Green was a great cheapskate.  She avoided using hot water or heating her New York residence so as to avoid the cost.  She and her two children (her husband was apparently estranged, but stayed married to her) often lived in small apartments.  Her son had to get his leg amputated after it got infected due to her insistence in going to a free medical clinic instead of taking him to a hospital. 

Hettie is an example of the two verses above; while one can say she denied herself much in terms of worldly gain, the blessings of her gift to accumulate wealth became her curse as she could not bear to share any of it or part with it, to the point of having her own son having to have his leg removed due to the delay in finding a free clinic.  While there were also some reports of her charitable giving after she passed, it is overshadowed by her greed and love of money.  What good became of her gaining all that wealth, when neither she or her family enjoyed it, or anyone else (at least while she was alive)?   

Another person I remember is Percy Ross.  Mr. Ross was the opposite of Hettie; he became well-known for his philanthropy, especially in giving away millions of dollars to those with legitimate needs and thousands of bicycles to children in need.  While not Biblical per se, I try to live with two sayings when it comes to sharing blessings; the first is from Mr. Ross, ‘He who gives while he lives, knows where it goes’.  The second is ‘my giving is based on my being willing and able, I pray I lose neither trait’. 

In comparing the two, Percy fits the person in the first half of Proverbs 11:10, people rejoiced and shared in Mr. Ross’ prosperity.  Conversely, Hettie was considered ‘the Witch of Wall Street’ and likely there were a few business associates who probably rejoiced when she passed.  (She did leave her children great sums of money, so they probably rejoiced a bit as well, though perhaps at least a bit muted.)

While I do not know the Salvation of either Hettie or Percy, I do know that I do not want to ‘gain the whole world’ but instead I want to share the Saving Gift of our Lord Jesus, as well as the other blessings I have been given by Him.   Obviously, sharing does not mean throwing everything away or giving it away foolishly (‘a fool and his money are soon parted‘, paraphrasing Proverbs 21:20) but it is better to share blessings than to horde them and cause them to become cursed.  Share your needs using God’s wisdom and discernment, as someone may be in need of sharing their blessings.