A Check for $10,000

Last week I wrote a personal check for $10,000 payable to the Organ
Fund at the Church of the Good Shepherd.

I have never written a larger check in my life, unless you count
tuition payments for Sarah and Andrew when they were in college and I
was in seminary and that is such a financially painful memory I would
rather not go there.

I had hoped to write the check to the church in a leisurely and
reflective moment. Instead I scribbled it out in haste just before
racing out the door to make an unexpected visit to the hospital.

And yet, once again I discovered the power and the pleasure of giving.
Throughout the day and indeed ever since, that check has given me
intense satisfaction. I have been able to make a contribution to the
welfare and well being of the people of Good Shepherd for years to
come. I savor that thought and taste it every day.

Don't get me wrong. I could have used the money in countless other
ways. Through the vagaries of family history I have come to own a 116
year old house on an island in northern Lake Huron. I love it. Its
been in the family since 1921. Four generations of my family have
lived, squabbled, loved, worked and played there. Each summer when I
walk in the front door I see my grandparents, my parents, my brother
Mike, all dead now, yet still present in the very wood and furniture
that hasn't been changed significantly since, oh, 1928. I sometimes
think I care for that house more than life itself. And, yes, $10,000
would do a lot to keep the old place going.

I am also finding that at this stage in life, my personal savings are
well, personal. Hard to acquire, harder to replenish.

Yet writing a check to the church for the largest gift of my life is
perhaps the finest, most lasting pleasure I have ever known.

Who knows? Maybe Jesus was right.

I rather suspect he was.

Joyously yours,

Charles