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bigmike

You Don’t Need to Do Everything—Just Do Your Best
“For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have” (2 Corinthians 8:12).
Have you ever had the experience of being on a team, in a tug of war? You were equally divided and your team was pulling on a rope, against another team, and you gradually began to realize the person next to you wasn’t pulling his weight. The individual may have been going through the motions but wasn’t really trying.
It happens—not only in games—but in business, in relationships, even in marriage. You resent it in a big way! No, you don’t expect the impossible. Not everyone can play baseball like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, or Hank Aaron, but you expect each one to try to pull his weight. Sure, not everybody can shoot baskets like Kobe Bryant or Shaq O’Neil, but when a person doesn’t try, you feel cheated.
There are, of course, some things that you simply can’t do. All of the effort in the world can’t bring a youngster back from the clutches of death. Your best efforts can’t always turn a company around, and your finest performance doesn’t always bring home the gold. However, if you don’t give it your best effort, you’ll never know what might have been the level of your performance or accomplishment.
Do you ever ponder what life is all about—wonder if God expects more of you than you can deliver? Some, naturally, try to fool Him, just as they try to fool other people. It doesn’t work! Yet a lot of people labor under false assumptions, not knowing that God knows the limits of our lives and only expects our best, not the impossible.
I’m thinking of what might happen in tackling some of our pressing social needs today if everybody—and I mean everybody—did what he or she could. In the book of Acts, Luke tells of a famine that spread throughout the Roman world of the first century, and “The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea” (Acts 11:29). And that was enough—plenty of food for the hungry.
During His ministry, a woman once approached Jesus with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke the jar, poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. Some of those present began to say, “What a waste!” But Jesus’ replied, “She did what she could!” (Mark 14:8). Think what would happen if everybody did what he could! Talk about changing things!
Each, according to his ability, distributing to each, according to his need. For some, it would be to give money. For others, to give of their time, resources, wisdom, abilities.
Now, God never expects you to give what you don’t have. Paul made that clear when he wrote to the Corinthians and said, “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have” (2 Corinthians 8:12).
Friend, there is really no shortage of anything today; only a shortage of desire to do what you can! The great problem is not insufficiency, rather greed. Not the inability to feed the hungry or meet the needs of hurting people, only the refusal to include others in your priorities.
Now, what do you do about that person who “dogs off,” and doesn’t pull his end of the load? Don’t worry about that person! The individual who is pulling his share of the load doesn’t really have time to notice when the traces are taut! He just knows that the wagon is beginning to move.
God has His payday someday. When it comes, you can be certain that He knows who deserves His rewards. May you hear Him simply say, “She has done what she could!” What better reward!
Resource reading: 2 Corinthians 8:10-15.

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