"Do not eat the bread of the stingy;
do not desire their delicacies;
for like a hair in the throat, so are they.
'Eat and drink!' they say to you;
but they do not mean it.
You will vomit up the little you have eaten,
and you will waste your pleasant words."
- Proverbs 23:6-8, NRSV
Ever had the unfortunate circumstance of swallowing a hair? It causes an annoying tickle in the throat that will immediately trigger the gag reflex. It's fairly accurate to say the experience is not pleasant.
God compares this nasty sensation to dealing with a stingy person. The reason for this is because stingy people are hypocrites; they offer without really wanting to offer. Ever had someone ask you, "You don't want any of this, do you?" You automatically answer no even if you want to say yes, because the offer is in the negative. I remember my grandmother, who would never ask a person if they wanted something to eat or drink; she just served whoever came to her house. Her explanation was, "If you ask, you do so in the hopes they'll say no." There is no genuine desire to share, just the desire to appear generous.
What's the problem with stinginess? It fails to acknowledge the real owner of everything we have. Nothing we have is ours; the proof is in the fact that we don't take it with us when we die. Everything stays behind for someone else to enjoy (or discard). When we realize and accept that everything in our possession is only temporarily ours, that all belongs to God and He, in His generosity, has allowed us to enjoy it, there is no logical reason for us to hoard anything. Just as He shares with us, so we must do with others. After all it's just stuff, until it blesses someone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment