A tale of two charities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... or so Charles Dickens' story begins.

Picture this: A lonely old widow places a five dollar bill into the red bucket of a Salvation Army bell ringer. That money she was going to use to buy a few small food items for herself. Instead, she donated all she had to others in need, and left herself deprived of the basic necessities of life. Rather than hoard the money out of fear, she gave out of a joyful heart; and out of faith that her God would provide for her needs.

Then picture this: Multi-million-dollar celebrities appear in a television commercial for St. Jude's Children's Hospital and Research Center of New York. As soon as the shoot is over with, the stars have their make-up removed and change out of their wardrobe. Their charitable work is done. They then are ushered away from the studio into their limousines and chauffeuered back to their mansions in Beverly Hills or Malibu.

Without further thought, they go on about their leisure while their personal assistants and accounting staff worry about the details of their employers' charitable donations, which, for many of them, is required by contract as part of maintaining a positive public image. A few thousand here; a couple hundred thousand there. Mere drops in the bucket for these philanthropists.

Now, I ask you: Which donation meant the most, and had the greatest impact on humanity? The five dollar bill given by the needy widow, or the two hundred thousand a celebrity drops into the bucket of need for St. Judes?

By man's standards, the St. Judes donation would have the farthest reaching impact.

But measuring the charity by God's standards, the widow's donation meant the most to meet the needs of others, because it came from the heart. It wasn't some formality like the paper charities supported by celebrities.

While paper philanthropists like media personalities and entertainers can appear to have the largest of hearts because their money is farthest reaching, their generosity is eclipsed by the average, inconspicuous donation of a humble human being who just wants to do the right thing for somebody else.

So, before you begin admiring a movie star for his or her charitable contributions, look more locally at the humble donors in your own community as people to honor for the good that they do.

Most of them are anonymous. They do not want to attract attention to themselves for the good works that they do; the way celebrities naturally tend to do. Rather, they give secretly, because their reward exists not in this life, but the next one.