Ask

“What would happen, I thought, if we stopped asking how much we could spare and started asking how much it was going to take?”

 - Radical by David Platt

For me, personally, the difference between these two is massive. It is the difference between counting dollars and scrimping pennies. It is the difference between buying one product because it is easier and buying a different product because it is 43 cents cheaper and that money could go to x, y, or z (or buying a different product that is 72 cents more expensive but Fair Trade).

43 cents isn't much, but, when $30 could feed a child for a month and send them to school, 43 cents adds up quickly.

When I ask how much it is going to take, I keep better track of my finances, because I want to make sure that every last penny goes where it should.

When I ask how much it is going to take, I work harder at my job, because I want to give those kids, not what I can spare, but everything that I can possible give them as tools to succeed.

When I ask how much it is going to take, my thoughts stray less towards grumbling about the wind or the cold or the heat, because I start to realize what an amazingly wonderful thing it is just to be alive.

When I ask how much it is going to take, it becomes easier to say “no” or “later” to things that I want but don't need and giving, even $5 at a time, becomes a joy rather than a chore. Because, while giving what we can spare adds ones more thing to an already full schedule, working to give what it will take becomes a purpose and a reason for being.

As one of my friends would say, giving everything makes life epic. (And, life is meant to be epic.)