Sorry, Wrong Currency
Have you ever used the wrong currency in a foreign country?
One thing that happens when you travel all over the world is you slowly begin to collect foreign currencies of coins and small bills in your travel pouch, money which was left over as you narrowly missed emptying your billfold before exiting a country. My current answer to Capital One’s question, “What’s in your wallet?” would produce this list:
– US dollars
– British pounds
– European euros
– Central African francs
– Sudanese pounds
– Turkish lira
– Ukrainian hryvnias
– Kenyan shillings
– Canadian dollars
– Egyptian pounds
– Jordanian dinar
Of course, most of these currencies have been hid in my travel pouch and are kept more as collectibles to say, “I visited this place”, but once in Egypt, I accidentally made the mistake of trying to pay with an incorrect currency. As I handed the bills to the cashier, he said to me in Arabic,
“What is this? Sorry, my friend, but this is the wrong currency. You are in Egypt. We don’t use money from Sudan.”
Oops, it was sort of embarrassing and I quickly pulled out the correct currency, which I had picked up from the airport, but not yet familiarized myself with. In Luke 21, Jesus reveals that the wealthy giving their riches at the temple that day would find themselves in a similar embarrassing predicament when they stand in front of God:
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. (Luke 21:1-3)
Mark states that the rich were putting in “large sums” (Mark 12:41), so there’s no doubt that in earthly currency, each one of them gave more than the widow’s two measly coins. But God uses a different currency, which is obvious because Jesus says that those two coins were MORE than the gifts of all of the affluent parishioners that day. Like me walking around with $10,000 Central African franc bills in America (each bill equals $20 USD), the numbers on these givers’ offerings didn’t mean much because they didn’t hold the same value to the one they were being given to.
So, what is God’s currency?
I think it’s faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) Faith is a gift that He apportions to us and then calls us to exercise. Jesus tells us that the way the widow’s gift was greater than all these large sums was that while the rich leaned on their own strength and “…all contributed out of their abundance”, she came with a crazy kind of faith that believed God was all she needed and “…out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:4).
Friends, don’t find yourself like me in front of the cashier in Egypt or the rich that day at the temple, but make sure you’re carrying the correct currency when you stand before God.
I always knew it wasn’t about the amount of money, but it helps to think about it in this way. O Heavenly Father, the one who knows how to give much better gifts than even our earthly fathers be they good or evil, give us your spirit in abundance and increase our faith to believe that you are who you say you are and you do what you say you will do! You are ALL that we need. Our living water, our bread of life, our Shepherd, our Bridegroom, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. – Veronica