Daily Devotional

Recently, my family went to a Rend Collective concert. If you’re not familiar with them, they are a great worship band from Ireland. We were all excited to hear one of our favorite bands and couldn’t wait for the show to start. At any concert, there’s always an opening act and some announcements that they do before the main event. Finally, after all of the pre-show things, it was time to start…at least it seemed like it. Before the band came out, they had one more announcement.

World Vision had a representative there that night and he came out to explain what World Vision is and how it works. World Vision is one of many great organizations that seeks to meet the physical needs of the impoverished around the world, all in the name of Jesus. My wife and I are quite familiar with this organization as we have had a sponsor child for over 10 years. While the World Vision representative gave his presentation, I have to admit, I kind of tuned out. I just wanted the concert to begin.

At the end of his pitch, he finished by asking anyone who wanted to sponsor a child to raise their hand and an usher would bring them a packet. I was quite shocked when an usher approached and reached out with a packet towards me. Embarrassingly I tried to explain that I didn’t raise my hand, at which point he motions past me. I turned to my right and saw my five-year-old son Micaiah waving his hand back and forth in the air.

I smiled at the usher and grabbed the packet from him even though I fully intended to turn it back in after the concert. I had Micaiah come sit on my lap and I explained to him that we already had a World Vision child that we sponsored…not to mention one from Compassion International and Food for the Hungry. Micaiah wasn’t impressed with my list of sponsored kids. His reply was simply, “But Dad, don’t we want more kids to eat?” As someone who does a lot of talking for a living, I was speechless. What could I say to rebuff that? Yes, I could have simply told him no and that would have been that, but instead, I took a mental step back and asked what God might be up to in this moment.

For the record, I am not one of those parents who thinks it’s a good idea to say yes to everything my children ask. At this moment, however, the heart of my five-year-old son was stirred, and I couldn’t see why I would want to stifle that. Honestly, I can be pretty good at talking myself out of giving to those in need. I do think we need to be wise with our giving and steward well what God has given to us but I think I can sometimes use this as an excuse to not be generous.

I’m sure I will hear lots more presentations from organizations like World Vision, and I’m not saying I will sponsor another child every time I do, but this night something was different. Each day I believe God sets up good works for us to do, and each day I believe our job is to respond to those. On this particular night, I believe this was something God was calling us to do and so we ended up sponsoring a fourth child that night.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.