Jeff Reich Shares Why He Supports our Church
By Jeff Reich
From Genesis 12, "I will bless you and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."
Sometime in the 1930s and on a cold autumn day, a five-year-old boy walks hand-in-hand with his much older sister to the center of the small town of Holloway, Minnesota. In response to the Depression, a federal government truck arrives to hand out surplus food to this hungry. This five-year-old boy carries a big block of cheese home, thankful and certain that his surplus food would keep them alive.
On that same day, a newborn baby sleeps while her desperate young father walks miles up the hill in Duluth, Minnesota, to get apples that he can later sell downtown from a basket to make some money to feed the baby. That five-year-old boy was my father. That newborn baby was my mother. They, like Susan's parents, lived through hardship and poverty.
They survived because others were willing to share. They lived their lives that when they were blessed with health, money, or time, they would be a blessing to others. Susan's dad was once a pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Winter Park. He taught us early to give 10% to charity, 10% to savings, and live on the rest.
We bought smaller houses and kept our cars longer. We gave generously, and we saved enough to be able to start our own company, Florida Surety Bonds. I got into surety bonds because it was the closest job offer to that cute blonde I'm still married to. One of my early customers was a tall, pleasant man with a 12-year-old son named David.
His company was called Don Collins Construction, and some of you may know his son, Pastor Dave Collins. Small world. We founded the agency using values taught by our parents. We took care of the person in front of us as best we could. We did it because we cared about these people. Turns out, that's a good way to run a business, and we prospered One evening, I was sitting around a campfire by the lake with two longtime friends.
I asked one friend how he had the ego or confidence that he could do ten life-saving operations in a day as a urology surgeon. He said, "Simple. I was a Cub Scout. The Cub Scout motto is to do your best. As I enter an operating room, I can only do one thing, and that is my best." I thought about that when I was a chaperone at high school church mission trips.
Some dads were master carpenters and worked their magic fixing up old homes. I was not. But I watched forty kids at the work site, and only four had tools, uh, like a rake or a paintbrush. The other kids were standing around watching. Well, I could buy tools. So every day, I would check to see what the jobs were as we were doing, assigned to, and then I would drive to Home Depot and buy enough rakes, shovels, paintbrushes, and hammers so everyone had a tool.
Everyone was blessed with a tool so they could be a blessing to the needy. Months later, I would ask those kids what their favorite day of the year was. It was never Christmas or their birthday. It was always Tuesday or Wednesday of the mission trip when they worked the hardest and made the most difference.
Giving feels good.
Our departure from our old church was painful, and we were hurting when we started attending here. I listened to Pastor Dave and Megan early on, and I pictured in my mind that there was this small campfire in the front of the church, and Dave and Megan were kneeling down, blowing on the kindling, trying to get the fire to start, even though there was a dark, heavy rain.
The dark rain spoke words that said, "Love only when it's convenient, when it is comfortable, and when it is with people that are just like you." But Dave and Megan kept blowing on that little flame, and the flame whispered, "Love like Jesus." Dave and Megan persisted. Others in the congregation helped blow on the flame to build the voice, "Love like Jesus."
And I know from experience that what they were trying to do here was not radical. It was beautiful, important, but also fragile. I realize that all of us here are on a mission trip to support that flame and that spirit. So Susan and I decided to go all in. We understood the budget enough to know money was spent wisely here.
We believed in the mission. We have been blessed, and we financially committed over to this ministry. It comes out of our bank automatically, whether we are here, on vacation, or even, it turns out, in the hospital. Do we do it for God? Well, sort of. Do we do it because we like Pastor Dave and Megan? Well, frankly, they are pretty nice.
Actually, we do it for you in this room. We are blessed to be a blessing. The people in this room, you, you are also blessed, and you have the tools to be a blessing to others. You need air conditioning, salaries, lights, and everything else that makes this place where the flame of loving like Jesus can grow.
In my mind, one day, a five-year-old child will walk out of Second Harvest Food Bank with a block of cheese.
A single mother will move into her new home built by Habitat for Humanity. A sick child will get proper care at Shepherd's Hope because someone in the room donated money, time, or assistance to make that happen. Someone will be accepted into this safe room, this sanctuary, even though they are different in the way they look, love, or where they are from.
You might think we are dreamers because we can't help everyone. I think of the young boy and girl picking up starfish stranded on the beach and throwing them back into the ocean so they can live. When challenged that they can't possibly make a difference because there are too many starfish on the beach, the little girl answered, "It makes a difference to the starfish we threw back into the water."
So we ask you this morning, will you join with us? Do your best. Pick up a starfish and toss it into the ocean. Let's join with Pastor Dave and Megan to blow on that flame, even in the rain, and watch that flame grow as its voice gets amplified by everyone in this room when it proclaims love like Jesus.
We are all blessed to be a blessing. Amen.
Comments