100 Days of HopeSample

From Rags To Riches

Daryl is a good friend of mine who is famous in certain areas of India for going into the slums, gathering hundreds of the Dalits (the lowest of the Indian castes) around him, and sharing the good news with them.

Well, we all know the Good News, but what he shares with them invariably throws them off and amounts to something that most have never heard before—the good news that they are rich! 

Translators always seem to have a problem with this one. They invariably ask him if he’s made a mistake, and if he knows whom he’s talking to.  Well, he does know whom he’s talking to, and no, he’s not a modern day, Indian version of Ed McMahon, so he always asks them to translate exactly as he’s shared.

He then shares the following passage to them: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

This message changes everything for the Dalits, as it should for us.  The biblical message of generosity, “For God so loved the world that he gave ...” should transform our hearts and our actions (John 3:16).  How might we (all of us being materially richer than the Dalits), respond to this indescribable gift?

Prayer: Father, thank you for your incredible generosity toward us. Help us to dwell on your gift and its implication in our lives today.