A Macedonian miracle

Sometimes I hear people talk about miracles as if they never happen anymore and I think about how they may just not be seeing the miracles that are happening all around them all the time. In fact, I would suggest that we may miss the miracles because they hide in the mundane. This past Sunday, God used something that happens all the time to help me appreciate something that doesn’t happen enough.

Every year during the month of December, our church receives a special offering called The Big Give. The premise is pretty simple: everyone brings $25, we add it all up, and then we give it all away to nonprofits in our area.

Over the years we’ve bought a lot of food, baby supplies, and toilet paper. It’s amazing how much of that stuff shelters and pregnancy resource centers need. We’ve also written some pretty big checks to help fund areas where those nonprofits were facing end-of-the-year shortages.

So giving an offering at the end of the year isn’t something new for our church. But this year, God did something new. He nudged us to use The Big Give to pay December power bills for families who would have to choose between celebrating Christmas or staying warm. We wondered how we’d find the families, and once we opened up an online form to allow people to recommend families, we wondered how we’d fund all the families. Our goal of 15 families was equaled in recommendations within the first week. As the number grew to 28, we realized that we’d never had a Big Give big enough to meet that need.

Not only that, but the nonprofits we normally support would end up getting no help since it would more than likely take all of whatever came in to pay the power bills. To add to the mounting impossibility, our church isn’t a wealthy church. I don’t say that a lot because I DESPISE A POVERTY MENTALITY and refuse to live as if the pie is only so big. Most of the time, I’m pretty sure our annual budget is normal, but every now and then in conversations with pastors of other churches our size or smaller, budgets come up and I realize that economically at least, our church is, let’s say, challenged.

Usually, that feels like a burden. But this past Sunday, it became a blessing. This past Sunday I preached from 2 Corinthians about the Macedonian church and about how they were rich in generosity (8:2). About how they were a model of gracious giving and examples to other churches of what it looks like to live and give freely (8:1). About how they were so eager to give that they begged for the opportunity (8:4) and then when given that opportunity, gave more than Paul had even hoped they would (8:5).

As I preached, I realized how much glory God received through the generosity of the Macedonian churches. What I didn’t realize was that I was preaching to one of them.

Not because our budget is one-half to one-third of other churches our size.

Not because we’re tested with many troubles or very poor.

But because I saw abundant joy – the sheer “we get too!” attitude – literally overflow in rich generosity.

I stood on the front row and watched what seemed like an endless line of people pass by a simple basket and drop in their part of The Big Give. Then, we waited until it was all counted, and what we found was a true miracle: this regular church filled with regular people on regular salaries (or, in some cases, no salaries) gave “even more than we had hoped” (8:5).

A lot more.

Almost two and a half times more than the largest amount in previous years of The Big Give.

Enough for all 28 families to have their power bills paid and still be able to do all that we’ve done in the past… and more.

And so this week I have praised God for always giving us a vision that exceeds our resources. That gap between what we can do and what only He can do is where the miracle is waiting. I’ve found myself less stressed about facing many troubles or being very poor (8:2) because the troubles we face “are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:17), and the money we don’t have isn’t what the world needs anyway (Acts 3:6).

This year, The Big Give became The Really, Really, Really Big Give, and for 28 families and a whole lot more people who will be touched by our amazing local nonprofits, a Macedonian miracle became their Christmas miracle.

You see, miracles still happen, and when we open our eyes, we’ll often find that we’re right in the middle of one.

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