And God said, "Share."

Mother Theresa tells us that we need to silence our minds and our hearts so that we can create room for God to speak. She writes that it is not what we say about God that is important but what God says to us...

It is very likely that God has me on some type of individualized spiritual education program for persons with ADHD because while my mind darts from issue to issue and my heart beats loud enough to lead a marching band, God continues to very clearly direct me...currently by pinching the top of my earlobe and dragging me down the hall.

Like most life lessons, this one started with VBS. After the first twenty minutes leading Preschool Storytelling time it crossed my mind that if these children were going to learn anything about Christianity I needed to change the emphasis from believing in Jesus to being like Jesus.

While there was no altar call at the end of the day, I did encourage the kids to make a tangible commitment to show God their love. Each child was invited to bring in a stuffed animal to donate to a non-profit organization that collected stuffed animals to ship to children in Iraq. I explained that some children have lots of stuffed animals an some of the children have none, but if we choose to respond to the love God has shown us everyone can have a stuffed animal and everyone can know the love of God. For the most part, I got looks of terror and panic. I could see the little wheels turning, "She is going to come and take my toys and give them to God!"

In the midst of the chaos of quickly forming preschool political bipartisan, one little girl quietly stood up, walked over o the collection bin, and dropped in the stuffed animal that she had brought with her to VBS. It was her favorite stuffed animal, a small purple unicorn, worn from accompanying her wherever she went. She hadn't planned to give it away. She just had decided it was what she was going to do. She heard that other children needed something that she could give them and she gave.

I was discouraged that only one little girl responded but I wasn't surprised. Sharing is a learned attribute. Compassion is a skill that evolves with practice. But her response reminded me that giving is an act made possible by God's grace...no matter what our age.

Listening to the political dialogue it is even more discouraging how little changes as we grow up. Not many of us are moved to a place of uncomfortable compassion by the knowledge that some of us have a lot and some of us have very little. Asking little children to give away some of their toys is as tall of an order as asking adults to pay more taxes so that everyone can have health care. It's all about giving up a surplus of something that is meaningful to us so that others can have enough. (Of course first, we have to admit we have a surplus...)

You might think that it would become easier to convince adults than children but there are two differences that make adults incredibly more inflexible when it comes to sharing on the global playground. 

For one, children have parents watching over them, reminding them that they have boxes of stuffed animals and that they can probably spare a few. They also have parents teaching them that we are all supposed to share.That it is the right thing to do. And that if they don't share they are going to have to go and sit in time out.

Adults respond to similar oversight of their greed with rationalized arguments about 'rights' and 'freedoms'. We quickly link arms with those who have what we have and stand protectively around our toys. If we think about God's parenting role as reminding us that our belongings are as valuable as our children's stuffed animals, well, then it isn't surprising church participation is becoming less and less popular. No one wants to share. No one wants to be put in time out. And as an adult, the reality is, we can avoid both.

Perhaps, the biggest obstacle adults face in the call to 'share' is entitlement. The belief that we have earned what we have. That others have not. That we shouldn't have to share with people we don't want to share with and if we don't want to share at all, well, then that is just our right. Antithetical to the Christian message, our lives have become stabilized in the myth that freedom is only ensured by a cut throat culture of hoarding.

This year at VBS, I have come to believe that as individuals and as a society we need God more than ever. Perhaps to us, a privileged people at a tie of dangerous inequity, God's greatest role is not love and grace but accountability. That in the midst of the rationalization of greed and the justification of selfishness, God would be presence of compulsive honesty echoed back to us in all of our shallow policies of entitlement. At some point we need to be reminded that just as our children's stuffed animals belong to their parents, all that we have belongs to God...because at some point God entrusted us to share...although it is clear that at some point we forgot.