A Pilgrim's Journal

He took it, glanced at it briefly, then looked back at the gentleman with a confused look on his face. "What's this for?" he asked.

"It's for you! Use it!" said the gentleman, eyes twinkling with glee.

"What for?" the man asked again, even more perplexed.

"Because I want to give it, and because I'm sure you'll have some use for it!" exclaimed the gentleman again.

The man started shaking his head, "No, this is too much. I don't even know you. Who are you? Why would you give me $100 out of the blue? It doesn't feel right."

The gentleman merely beamed his smile back in return.

The man finally moved, handing the $100 bill back to the gentleman, shaking it a bit for emphasis, "Really, I can't take this. You'll have to take it back."

"It's too late!" said the gentleman, holding up both hands in the air. "I won't take it back. If you give it to me, I'll drop it on the ground."

"Well, surely you want something in return, and I can't afford that."

"Nothing! I don't want anything in return," said the gentleman, still smiling like he was fit to burst with joy.

"What if I spend it on booze?" the man asked.

"It's yours."

"What if I give it to the mob?"

"It's yours."

"What if I throw it away?"

"It's yours."

The man was stymied. Did this gentleman seriously not want it back? Was this truly a gift with no strings attached? So he asked, "How do I thank you?"

At this, the gentleman's smile seemed to brighten even more, and said, "Use it to your own best benefit."

The man furrowed his brow. "You mean I can just blow this on lottery tickets or something?"

"Of course, if you think that is to your best benefit."

The man shook his head, but slowly accepted that there were no strings, and that the $100 was his. "Well, thank you very much," he said quietly.

"You're welcome!" the gentleman said, and continued on his merry way.

The man stood there and pondered a while, going through a long list of possibilities in his head, considering where he might spend this windfall. In the end, he decided there was no better place to spend it but to buy school supplies and a coat for his son.

This is of course a fictitious story, but what would you do if you encountered a gentleman like that?

What if you insisted, and tried to put the $100 bill back into the pocket of his suit coat, but he just plucked it out, dropped it on the pavement, and kept on walking?

Do you realize that you are meeting this gentleman every day?

When I realized this just now, it was an amazing insight to me. God is giving me gifts like this every day, and there is no way I can give them back. He gives me air, light, health, skill, knowledge, wisdom, love, friends, family, even money. And there is no way I can return any of these gifts back to Him as if I didn't receive it.

I can waste it. Throw them on the ground and walk away. But they will remain wasted. God doesn't take them back.

	For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance.
	   Romans 11:29

What does this mean? It means that God has given me much, and the only way I can truly thank Him, and the only way I could even symbolically try to give anything back to Him is to use His gifts according to His will.

And what is His will?

	This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare
	unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
   
	   1 John 1:5
   
   
	17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother
	have need, and shutteth up his bowels [of compassion] from him,
	how dwelleth the love of God in him?
  
	18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue;
	but in deed and in truth.
  
	   1 John 3

Let us be gentlemen.