How Little is Too Little?

Unless you're a movie star, a rapper, a professional athlete, or a wildly successful investor, it's likely your extra cash reserves are like most people's - rather limited. Perhaps you feel that you have nothing to give to the needs of others. Or at least what you have is so small that it couldn't possibly make a difference.

I challenge you to allow yourself to think differently about what you have to give and what the potential ramifications of your tiny gift might be. Jesus had a lot to say about caring for others.

One day Jesus was teaching at the Temple in Jerusalem. He presented a lesson highlighting an extremely poor woman's offering. While many wealthy others had placed large sums in the offering receptacle, this poor woman quietly dropped in two very small copper coins. Her two mites were together worth a quadrans, the smallest Roman coin.

This woman was poor. She was nearly destitute. Everything she had, she gave. It was likely worth just pennies.

What could she have been thinking? Could her measly two mites make any difference to anyone, anywhere? Regardless, she gave.

I believe she gave obediently, from her heart. Her love of God compelled her to do so.

According to the Pew Research Center, in the article "The Changing Global Religious Landscape," there are currently about 325,700,000 people in the United States and 76% of them are Christians. That is, there are about 247,532,000 professing Christians in the U.S.

Let's drop that number down to 150,000,000, because we know that not all who profess to be Christians actually live that lifestyle. Now, if these Christians each gave only $5 per month for a year to a charity or some other documented need, that works out to about $9,000,000,000 a year. That's a lot of zeroes, so let me help you. It's nine billion dollars.

Now let's take it worldwide. The Pew Center reports that about 31% of the world's 7.4 billion people are Christians, or about 2.29 billion. What if only 1.5 billion of those are actually practicing Christians, and each gave $5 per month for a year? In this case, ninety billion dollars goes to help those in need through the world.

That's a lotta buckaroos.

Could it be that this is God's plan for alleviating world poverty, disasters, lack of water, etc.?

Please don't ever doubt that your tiny bit of giving can contribute to making a huge difference when combined with the actions and giving of other faithful Christians around the world. There simply isn't an amount that is too little.