Have I None
Acts 3
Peter reached deep into the pocket of his tunic and turned up a wad of lint where a coin should be.
That’s what I like to think, anyway.
The man whose feet and ankles would not support him — leaving him to the limited care of others who would carry him to sit by the gate and beg the equally limited mercy of yet others who would pass by him — he asked Peter and John for alms and I like to think Peter first dug deep into his pocket in search of something substantive to give him.
The text doesn’t say so. I just like to think it sits there between the lines the Spirit found fit to put into print.
It does say his pockets were empty though — Peter had to confess he had no silver or gold to give to the man.
And I wonder if Peter had slid the loose change off his dresser that morning and dropped the coins into his hip pocket, would he have flipped a silver medallion over to the man curled there on his tattered mat in the roadside dust? Would he have met him at his immediate need, giving him enough for a chunk of bread and flask of wine and then hurried along with John into the temple for prayer?
He couldn’t order lunch for the man from the temple bistro and tell the waiter to put it on his tab. So he ordered him to his feet in the name of Jesus of Nazareth instead.
If Peter’s pockets bulged with his own resources, would the miracle have crossed his mind?
When was the last time you left home without your stuff, and a better thing happened because you had none?
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Related: Look at Us
Hanging out with Michelle and her wise friends today:
A lot lately actually. Brilliant Lyla.
And the photo is stunning as well.
2012/01/15 at 9:54 PM
Amazing sometimes what happens if I put my own stuff away. Good to see you, Deb.
2012/01/15 at 10:10 PM
A hermitage cabin, a hotdog, a circus and now this. I love the way he fills your heart. Thank you for spilling over on to me. Pressed down, shaken together.
2012/01/15 at 11:06 PM
Ah, lovely Pat. You’ve slipped in through the side door.
Yes, he fills me in those places. Who could’ve known?
2012/01/16 at 6:16 PM
Wow, Lyla! Inspiring words, brilliant photo. You’ve left me think, think, thinking tonight. Love that!
2012/01/15 at 11:42 PM
Thanks, Cindy!
2012/01/16 at 6:16 PM
Oooh…got me with that last line. I ALWAYS take all my stuff with me. It’s sad, really. A huge purse, a book bag, a camera bag. Yeah, loads of stuff. Sigh. It’s a goal – to learn to travel light. And here is the best reason of all to do so. Thank you, Lyla.
2012/01/16 at 12:04 PM
Never been a purse-person. But I do have backpack…
When I think of traveling light I always remember trying to help my high schoolers pack for a project to Argentina. I suggested they pack only what they absolutely needed, then take out half. Then I suggested they walk around the block carrying their bags. They’d come back and take out half again.
I should walk carrying my stuff more often, I think. I might approach him better empty handed knowing the weight of my own futile resources.
2012/01/16 at 6:18 PM
His stuff wins hands down and still He uses us to share it.
2012/01/16 at 12:14 PM
Isn’t that the kicker, Susan? We don’t do it his way, and he *still* wants to work his plan through us. He amazes…
2012/01/16 at 6:19 PM
I realized my pockets were empty right about the time my daughter reached fifteen. I thought I had everything I needed to be a good parent. I’d read books, I was well grounded in scripture, I was part of a faithful church community. Then God graciously revealed how impoverished I was to raise the unique children he’d given me, the ones He formed with His infinitely creative mind. I’ve been asking for the miracle ever since. And I’ve seen it.
2012/01/16 at 1:39 PM
Ay, Nancy. Once, I was very wise about parenting. And then I lay in that horrible pose listening to a doctor say, “Whoops, he just slipped back in. Let’s try that again.” The moment my eldest was born I discovered I knew not a diddly whit about parenting. Too bad I didn’t realize it sooner. I might have thought to prepare.
2012/01/16 at 6:23 PM
Thoroughly lovely depiction, Lyla, as I would expect.
I’m not sure this is what your question has in mind, but in the last year or so I’ve adopted a different response when people ask me to pray for someone they know. My prayer list bulges with names of those I hold dear, and I sometimes find myself bogged down when there simply not enough minutes in the day to add the prayer burdens I don’t sense that I’m supposed to shoulder for the long haul. I have often said that I’m a pauper where time is concerned.
So now, when a prayer request comes up, rather than say, “Yes, I will pray,” and then later struggle to fulfill my word, I now stop in that moment I DO have, and I pray with the person sharing another’s burden. I may post a prayer on Facebook, or Twitter.
Anyway, that’s what comes to mind when I consider a life where I cannot always offer the prayer time someone asks of me.
2012/01/16 at 1:40 PM
Beautiful Anne, the question has in mind whatever motivates you to share your heart here. I’m so glad to see you.
This is a wise course — to pray at that moment. Why do we wait to add it to our list? Sure, we can always remember to go to him with it again. But right then, to do it.
2012/01/16 at 6:25 PM
it’s true, i lean on my stuff.
2012/01/16 at 3:43 PM
Me too, Nancy. Me too.
Well, not on your stuff. But you know.
2012/01/16 at 6:25 PM
Funny… Not in the ha-ha way…
As I clicked to pop in here, just now, a dread rose within me:
“What will Lyla challenge me to do today?”
Set aside my stuff. Open my hands to His stuff, His purposes.
No wonder I was afraid.
2012/01/16 at 6:11 PM
Oh dear. I inspire dread? I’m quite certain this was never my goal…
(I think know what you mean, Sheila.
)
2012/01/16 at 6:38 PM
I reckon you do, Lyla…and thank you for that.
I can’t just come here and be amused. You call me to think.
And I’m off work today on holiday (if the stock market is closed, I get the day off. Did you know they close for presidents’ funerals?), so maybe I just didn’t want to think.
But I can’t stay away from this place…lazy brained or not.
2012/01/16 at 6:43 PM
I appreciate you so much, Sheila. You actually encourage me a tad bit with your dread… If that makes any sense.
2012/01/16 at 6:46 PM
It makes all the sense in the world, Lyla.
And please, keep inspiring me to dread. I need it.
So grateful for you, friend.
2012/01/16 at 6:49 PM
forgot to subscribe :/
2012/01/16 at 6:11 PM
It’s good to be at the end of ourselves, our stuff, so we can see Him clearly and get out of the way. Love where you took this portion of scripture and the photo is haunting. It makes me cold and refreshed all at the same time!
2012/01/16 at 10:04 PM
Shelly, it ought to make you feel cold… It was about 4 below on the car thermometer last week when I pulled off to look at a few things in the ditch. The row of snowy trees had my attention for a while.
Getting ourselves out of the way — no easy thing.
2012/01/16 at 10:07 PM
oh i resonate with sheila. this makes me afraid too. it’s so much easier to lean on physical resources. but how i needed this… thank you, dear lyla…
2012/01/16 at 10:18 PM
Me too, Emily. Some days I just like my stuff better. How foolish of me… Thanks so much for your words here.
2012/01/17 at 11:47 PM
Lyla:
I can’t add much to what your “Early Responders” have already noted. However, I do have to say that you have a way with words. You do know how to make a story come alive.
I occurred to me that you could have been a ghost writer for Jesus and punched up his parables a little. Ooop!! His parables don’t need any help. We’ve had 2000 years of folks trying to polish the parables. Plus, I am personally convinced that He had his own Ghost (writer).
I see trees covered with frost, you see a camera shot.
Dad
2012/01/17 at 1:11 PM
Ha! Punch up the parables? I think not… But sometimes these stories just take a little different shape in my mind. I hope he doesn’t mind.
2012/01/17 at 11:48 PM
That is a cool thought, Lyla. I’m always so prepared. Am I leaving God out? Maybe.
2012/01/17 at 6:42 PM
I know I do sometimes. I don’t think He’ll do it right. (Who am I kidding, really?)
2012/01/17 at 11:49 PM
I keep trying to think of something funny and/or profound to say but my brain is mush.
As a minute purse carrier but a heavy packer for overnights, it, like all your posts, made me think, re-evalute and reflect.
thank you friend.
2012/01/17 at 7:17 PM
You’re entitled, Patty, to mush. Let it sit and be squishy a while. It’ll firm up again. Promise.
2012/01/17 at 11:50 PM
There you go again. Wow. The way you hear God speak to you…and then you share it here in this space. God is using you to change me, my friend. It is good. And I will never again look at the change on the dresser in the same way.
2012/01/17 at 7:22 PM
I slide mine into my savings can. I come home with loose change, but rarely leave with it.
And? He uses you to change me, too. Handy arrangement, don’t you think?
2012/01/17 at 11:51 PM
God’s providential timing always amazing me. Just yesterday, last night, this morning, feeling so empty…nothing to give. See needs all around me and in me there are no resources. At the library today, have been stuck at home far from the internet, and your words are waiting. Breathe of life from the Giver of life to revive my empty soul. It is not my resources that are important, but His. Leaning hard and long into the Father – ready to give what He supplies.
As always, thank you Lyla.
2012/01/19 at 1:33 PM
I fear my stuff blinds me to Him. And just to let go would bind. Hmmm.
2012/01/22 at 5:15 PM