Grant to me, that I may give

     "I have become all things to all people" (I Cor. 9.22). I have, unconsciously at first, taken this verse to be my life's motto...I think. I'm not sure it was voluntary, but when I look at my life and the motivations that dictate the majority of my actions, this about sums it up. Paul is speaking about changing situations--free to servant, becoming weak around the weak, etc, so that he might win people to the gospel.
    Add to that idea this quote: "Hitherto I have hated to be helped--to be led: henceforth, I feel I shall hate it no more" (Jane Eyre, chtr. 37). He hated to be helped until the one who helped him was one of his own, one whom he knew, and who knew him. 
   I would love to say that I have become all things to all people, to them close enough that I may give to them without imposing a debt. But so often I find that I cannot give something without having it first.
   This of course is obvious when it comes to material possessions; I can hardly give a couch I haven't got, nor could I give money I don't own (excepting special circumstances where I am entrusted with money to give...but then it's mine to give, all the same). But I could no more give my nonexistent couch than give wisdom that isn't mine. Or joy. 
    Tell me, what do we, the church, God's children, have to offer America? What has been granted to us that we may give back out?
   I look at my friends' lives, at mine, and I answer this: we have the strength to bear difficulty (yes, even in America). I could add love, as well, though perhaps not the wisdom to love well ("He loved not wisely but too well" Othello). But...what is it America wants?
   Wealth. Power. Fame. All these wrapped up: America wants to get what it wants, it wants granted wishes that end in happiness. It wants, really, a lasting happiness-joy. And for myself, if not for others, we have a hard time offering that, because we don't have it.
    And I don't really know why. But I'm praying, praying grant to me joy, your joy, that I may give it out, overflowing. In Christ's name, amen.