I Cannot Spare It

Tonight we are making a pot of rice and lentils, and it stretches, and the stretching is the whole subject of this article.

Here is the whole method in one paragraph. Cook one chopped onion in oil in a pot for six minutes with salt. Add two cloves of chopped garlic and a big spoon of cumin for a minute. Add three quarters of a cup of brown or green lentils and three cups of water, and simmer for twenty minutes until they are nearly tender. Add a cup of rice, plenty of salt and another cup and a half of water. Lid on, lowest heat, twenty minutes, do not lift it. Rest it five minutes off the heat. Fork it through with lemon and anything green. It feeds five properly, or six at a push, and it costs about a dollar. And that sixth bowl is not the meal getting thinner. It is what this dish was designed to do.

Now, the reason I am writing is not the lentils.

It is that you have been made to feel bad about not giving, and your own cupboard is thin.

Somebody preached something, or posted something, or said something at a gathering about generosity. And you sat there with your own arithmetic running, and you felt a familiar mix of guilt and something close to anger, and you did not say anything.

Because here is your situation. There genuinely is not much. You are not being tight and you are not being selfish. The money is what it is, and the food is what it is, and being told to give feels like being told to produce something that is not there.

The strangest request in the Bible

There is a moment in First Kings that would be outrageous if it came from anybody else.

And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. (1 Kings 17:13, King James Version)

A woman has just told him she has a handful of flour and a little oil and is preparing a last meal for herself and her son.

And he asks for some of it first.

Now, before that lands wrong, look at the two words at the start: fear not. And look at what is being asked for. Not the flour. A little cake, made from what is already being made, at the same time, in the same pan, in the same fire.

He is not asking her to acquire anything. He is asking for one more portion out of a meal that is happening anyway.

You are only being asked for what is already in the pot, and God has never once required a person to give out of what they do not have. First Kings 17:13 asks for a portion of a meal already being cooked rather than for a new provision, and the Holy Spirit is the one who takes that off a page and puts it into a kitchen with almost nothing in it.

You have not been asked to produce anything, and heaven has never once demanded generosity out of an empty cupboard. It is written that he said fear not, go and do as thou hast said, and the same Spirit who breathed that line is standing in the room where the onion is softening.

What one more bowl actually costs

Now let me be practical, because the answer to this is arithmetic rather than sentiment.

The pot is going on anyway. The heat is on. The onion is already cooking.

One more portion of rice and lentils costs about eighteen cents. Not the meal. Not a night's food for your household. Eighteen cents, and one more cup of water, and no extra time at all, because the lid goes on for the same twenty minutes.

You are able to give without going without, and God has never once designed generosity to require a person to be hungry. First Kings 17:13 asks for a portion of a meal already in progress rather than for a provision that does not exist, and the Holy Spirit is the one who says fear not before He asks for anything.

That is the actual figure, and it is worth having in front of a person, because the thing being declined is not the thing it feels like. The picture in the mind is a sacrifice. The reality is a slightly fuller pot.

And this is exactly why the widow's story works the way it does. She was not asked for a barrel. She was asked for a cake off the top of a fire that was already lit.

A thin cupboard is not a verdict on whether a person can be generous.

You are able to do this without going without, and God has never once designed giving to require a person to be hungry. The passage puts the request inside the meal that was already happening, and the Spirit of God is the one who takes a fantasy of sacrifice and replaces it with a real number.

You have been carrying a guilt that was never yours, put there by people who did not know your arithmetic. First Kings 17 begins with fear not before it asks for anything, and the Holy Spirit is the one who says the same thing first in a kitchen.

One bowl, one hundred feet

Here is the practical part, and both halves of it are small on purpose.

One extra bowl. Not a tray, not a week of meals, not a commitment. One bowl out of a pot that is going on the stove anyway.

And take it within a hundred feet of your own front door. The person next door, the person across the hall, the woman two doors down whose light is on. Somewhere you can walk to in under a minute and be home before the rice cools.

You have one more bowl in that pot, and God has never once asked anybody to give out of what is not there. It is written that he said make me thereof a little cake first, off a fire that was already lit, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes fifty feet and one container a complete act.

The reason for the hundred feet is that distance is where good intentions die. A delivery that requires a car and a plan and a free evening is a project, and projects get postponed. A bowl carried fifty feet happens tonight.

And take it in something you do not need back.

You are able to give without it costing you anything you needed, and God has never once made generosity into a thing only comfortable people can do. First Kings 17:13 asks for one small cake off a fire already burning, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes one bowl and fifty feet into that same act.