Something one of my sisters said many years ago stuck with me. She was living in a large city at that time and left her bicycle unchained by the front door. When asked the question, ‘what if someone steals it?’ her response was ‘They must have needed it worse than me!’ I had that in mind when I dealt with a similar situation recently. I found two charges on our account that were not made by us. After checking with the bank and having everything cut off, we were instructed on how to proceed in getting those funds back. At that point, the above scenario with my sister came to mind, and I thought, that person filled up their tank, probably a truck seeing the amount, and ate something at a fast food restaurant, well, they may have just needed gas and food.
There is a wonderful biblical truth behind the mind-blowing attitude. It goes back to the self-denying attitude Jesus spoke of in his parable in Luke 6:29 “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.”
This is a tough one for a human being to process and adhere to. The first instinct if someone is doing you wrong is retaliate. If someone steals from you, you want to retrieve what was stolen or at least bring them to justice. The feeling such a situation brings about in us is a sense of indignation. That seems perfectly fine from a human standpoint. But God’s rules are different. God tells us, let them steal from you, let them beat you up, let them do you wrong and that’s ok.
In God’s kingdom the last will be the first and the first the last. A kind of topsy-turvy world from our normal way of thinking. God reliance is of the utmost importance and reliance on our own material possessions is rebellion against God’s desire to provide for us. Another lesson learned!
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