Damned if you do – Damned if you don’t

I went fishing with one of my friends from church Saturday and while we were out in the middle of the deep beautiful ocean chasing fish, out of the blue asked me a very personal question. Our church is raising money for a new building and an anonymous donor has been matching every dollar the congregation contributes and has contributed a rather large sum of money to the fund. My friend comes right out and asks me if indeed I am that anonymous donor.

Hmmm I told him, “Consider if I am the anonymous donor then by the very connotation of the word ‘anonymous’, I would not want to blab it all over the congregation, now would I? Why? Because the Bible instructs us to do our charitable works in secret, not letting the left hand know what the right hand does. Also consider that the Bible tells us not to lie. If in this situation I was indeed the anonymous donor, I would be damned if I tell you because I am not supposed to trumpet my good works, or damned if I do not admit to it and lie about it. Why would you want to put me in such a situation?”


I always try to ascertain what Jesus would do when faced with a difficult situation like this one. I would assume that He would say that there are plenty of anonymous donors in our church. Each and every one of them is just as important as the other. In fact it may surprise you to know which Jesus values the most. A big deal is made about the amount of money given in the matching program of our church; however there is an interesting story told by none other than Jesus about a very poor widow lady who put two “mites”, (the equivalent of each coin was approximately one eight of a cent), into the temple treasury. Others put in larger sums and gave great gifts, but Jesus who observed the people’s giving, told His disciples that her offering was more than all of those who gave to the treasury, because the others gave out of the abundance of their wealth and she gave all that she had to the Lord.

I’m sure the members of the synagogue were plenty excited when some wealthy family put a huge sum into the treasury and everyone made a big deal about it, but Jesus who sees the heart, treasured the poor widow woman’s contribution far more, and while the congregation exalted the large donors, God exalted the poor widow for her sacrificial donation of a quarter of a cent. You see God does not desire our money, all of the world and all of the treasures already belong to Him; God desires our love and obedience to His commands.

In our church there are people baking cakes, washing cars, mowing lawns, and running miles with sponsors giving money for every mile they run in order to raise money whereby our church can have a beautiful place to worship and lead others to salvation. Jesus is watching and His appreciation is not determined by the size of the donation, but the size of someone’s heart and love for Him. No one individual is a hero in our church’s building fund program, we all love the Lord with all of our hearts and just want to do what He wants us to do and are giving sacrificially as we have to give.

He said, “Well is it you?” After again trying to patiently explain that this was not an appropriate question to ask anyone and trying my best to change the subject to something else other than what I give to the church, I finally became agitated. My friend kept hounding me about it until I finally looked him coldly in the eye and told him to shut up and fish. Hmmm. Don’t think Jesus would have used that one, but it seemed to work.

My buddy remained quiet for about five minutes and then looked at me and stated, “Well if it is you I just want you to know man that we really appreciate it.” Arghhh!

Mark 12:43
So He called His disciples to Himself
and said to them, “Assuredly I
say to you that this poor widow has
put in more than all those who have
given to the treasury;
for they all put in out of their
abundance, but she out of her poverty
put in all that she had, her
whole livelihood.