Archives by: Gary Hoag

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. Proverbs 17:17

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze the paths
Where highways never ran-
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road
Where the race of men go by-
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner’s seat
Nor hurl the cynic’s ban-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife,
But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,
Both parts of an infinite plan-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead,
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by-
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish – so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

“House by the Side of the Road” by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911).

My mom’s heart condition (atrial fibrillation) has persisted for about a month and a half. While it appears stable, she has an important doctor’s appointment on Friday to determine next steps for treatment. I appreciate your prayers for her. It has been good to be with her and dad this week in Florida.

I depart on Thursday, but in the meantime I asked my mom to share some of her favorite poems and she shared this one. It’s a powerful picture of humility and generosity, of grace, kindness, and hope. It touched me deeply so I pray it inspires you to be a friend to others each day. I hope it blesses you.

We are living in hard times: war, inflation, pandemic, and so many more challenges. These cause many of us, myself included, to feel alone, faint with the strife, wearisome, and embattled by cynics and scorners. So what should we do to love others generously.

Mom says, go be a friend to man.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12

A beggar in the street I saw,
Who held a hand like withered claw,
As cold as clay;
But as I had no silver groat
To give, I buttoned up my coat
And turned away.

And then I watched a working wife
Who bore the bitter load of life
With lagging limb;
A penny from her purse she took,
And with sweet pity in her look
Gave it to him.

Anon I spied a shabby dame
Who fed six sparrows as they came
In famished flight;
She was so poor and frail and old,
Yet crumbs of her last crust she doled
With pure delight.

Then sudden in my heart was born
For my sleek self a savage scorn,–
Urge to atone;
So when a starving cur I saw
I bandaged up its bleeding paw
And bought a bone.

For God knows it is good to give;
We may not have so long to live,
So if we can,
Let’s do each day a kindly deed,
And stretch a hand to those in need,
Bird, beast or man.

“Compassion” by Robert W. Service.

Yesterday’s poem got me thinking about exploring poetry this week. God is nudging me to share compassion and kindness more generously this Summer, so I searched and found this gem.

I am visiting my parents, Jack and Patsy Hoag, in Florida this week because my mom is having heart trouble. My mom’s dad, Byron Drake Gregg, taught me to memorize poems from Robert W. Service so I went to his works.

This poem is powerful. “Let’s do each day a kindly deed, and stretch out a hand to those in need.” That phrase sums up my grandfather’s life and my mom too. God help her condition improve.

God make us all be generous and compassionate as we may not have so long to live and God knows that it is good to give in the days He has given us.

Then [Jesus] climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. Mark 6:51-52

“God Forgive Me When I Whine”

The other day upon a bus,
I saw a lovely girl with golden hair,
I envied her, she seemed so sweet
And wished I were as fair.
Then suddenly, she turned to go
And hobbled down the aisle.
She had one leg and wore a crutch
And as she passed, a smile.
Oh, God forgive me when I whine
I have two legs, the world is mine.

Then I stopped to buy some sweets,
The lad who sold them had such charm.
I paused to talk, he seemed so glad
And if I were late would do no harm.
As I left, he said to me, “I thank you, sir,
You have been so kind.
‘Tis nice to talk to folks like you
Because you see I’m blind.”
Oh, God forgive me when I whine,
I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Later walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play,
It seemed he knew not what to do.
I gazed a moment and then I said,
“Why don’t you join the others, dear?”
He looked ahead nor said a word.
And then I knew, he could not hear.
Oh, God forgive me when I whine,
I have two ears, the world is mine.

And with legs to take me where I go
And with eyes to see the sunset glow.
And with ears to hear what I would know
Oh, God forgive me when I whine,
I’m blessed indeed, the world is mine.

“God Forgive Me When I Whine” from The Busby Scrapbook of Poems That Touch the Heart compiled by Howard K. Busby, 1980.

My dear friend and mentor, Dan Busby, posted this poem on his CaringBridge site on Saturday. It touched me deeply, and I pray it ministers to you. Dan has been told he might have only short time left to live. So, rather than whine about it, he has resolved to focus on his blessings and live every day to the fullest without whining.

It got me thinking. We are all terminally ill. Unless our LORD returns first, we are all going to die. So, how should we live? Today’s Scripture offers the answer. We must remember that Christ is with us in the storms of life, and rather than whine about hard times and develop hard hearts, we can rest in knowing we have all we need in Christ.

That was the lesson of the loaves. When we give God what we have, He always makes sure we have enough. We can share our blessings and trust Him with our challenges. This way of living becomes our most generous contribution to the world around us, where lots of people are whining. Thanks for not whining, Dan! God forgive us when we whine.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 1 John 2:15

“Living a just and holy life requires one to be capable of an objective and impartial evaluation of things: to love things, that is to say, in the right order, so that you do not love what is not to be loved, or fail to love what is to be loved, or have a greater love for what should be loved less, or an equal love for things that should be loved less or more, or a lesser or greater love for things that should be loved equally.”

Saint Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book 1.27.

The challenge for the person wanting to live a just, holy, and generous life is to keep their loves in the right order.

We say, “I love this restaurant” and go there often. We say, “I love this activity” and do it often. We say, “I love this house” and we pour resources into it.

Then soon we forget that these are just gifts from God and not God. We have diminished margin for generosity. But sharing these gifts with others releases their power over us.

What do you love? Pause to reflect today on the gifts you enjoy and the Giver who supplies them. Consider how you might put your loves in the right order by balancing loving and sharing.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5

A Prayer of Relinquishment

Today, O Lord, I yield myself to you.
May your will be my delight today.
May your way have perfect sway in me.
May your love be the pattern of my living.
I surrender to you
my hopes,
my dreams,
my ambitions.
Do with them what you will, when you will, as you will.
I place into your loving care
my family,
my friends,
my future.
Care for them with a care that I can never give.
I release into your hands
my need to control,
my craving for status,
my fear of obscurity.
Eradicate the evil, purify the good, and establish your
kingdom on earth.
For Jesus’ sake,
Amen.

Richard Foster in Prayers of the Heart (New York: HarperCollins, 1994) 24.

Soak in this prayer on this Saturday.

Discover that only in releasing do we gain, only in surrendering our will do we discover God’s good and perfect will, and only in yielding do we find freedom.

Ultimately it celebrates God’s generous care for each of us.

Imagine trying to live the generous life without dependence on such care. We’d have no peace, no joy, and no contentment! Only through relinquishment do we receive all God has for us.

And as our situations constantly change, we get to relearn this daily.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” 2 Corinthians 8:13-15

“At present we find ourselves in a world where, as a matter of fact, few people are rich and powerful, while many are poor and weak. Some who are well-off often have actively wronged their neighbors to get or keep their wealth; others wrong their neighbors by allowing them to suffer rather than share with them. There is an obvious inequality in the distribution of the goods needed for life, and much of the inequality is a reflection of injustice.”

Dallas Willard in Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (New York: HarperCollins ebooks) 195.

Willard nailed it. There is much inequality in the world, but the Spirit is stirring significent efforts right now in places like Hong Kong and Malawi.

Imagine the rich giving to help create equality through sharing that not only alleviates suffering but unleashes grassroots local giving!

If you want to know about the Hong Kong efforts, reply and I can connect you with Roger Lam, a catalyst in the HK$10,000 Reasons movement.

And check out what the Malawi National News says about the Palmful of Maize (POM) vision led by GTP and STUM (Sunday School Teachers United Movement).

POM has been funded by a few wealthy givers. Their contributions have helped national workers build a generosity curriculum and spread it nationwide.

Also check out this video from a church in rural Euthini, Malawi. The children are celebrating that they can give a palmful of maize to God to share with the poor.

Click here to make a gift to GTP to share in a way that helps bring equality in some of the poorest places like Malawi and soon to nearby Zambia and Zimbabwe.

We are praying for 70 more givers by 30 June 2022, as a foundation has challenged us to broaded our support base. If we can do it, they plan to make a major gift.

This will help us build capacity to bring equality to some of the most difficult situations on the planet. Please consider prayerfully making a gift today.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24

“Jesus speaks to the question of economics more than any other single social issue. If, in a comparatively simple society, our Lord lays such strong emphasis upon the spiritual dangers of wealth, how much more should we who live in a highly affluent culture take seriously the economic question.

The Epistles reflect the same concern. Paul says, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9). A bishop is not to be a “lover of money” (1 Tim. 3:3). A deacon is not to be “greedy for gain” (1 Tim. 3:8). The writer to the Hebrews counsels, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5). James blames killings and wars on the lust for possessions: “You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war” (James 4:1-2). Paul calls covetousness idolatry and commands stern discipline against anyone guilty of greed (Eph. 5:5; 1 Cor. 5:11). He lists greed alongside adultery and thievery and declares that those who live in such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul counsels the wealthy not to trust in their wealth, but in God, and to share generously with others (1 Tim. 6:17–19).

Having said all this, I must hasten to add that God intends that we should have adequate material provision. There is misery today from a simple lack of provision just as there is misery when people try to make a life out of provision. Forced poverty is evil and should be renounced. Nor does the Bible condone an extreme asceticism. Scripture declares consistently and forcefully that the creation is good and to be enjoyed. Asceticism makes an unbiblical division between a good spiritual world and an evil material world and so finds salvation in paying as little attention as possible to the physical realm of existence.

Asceticism and simplicity are mutually incompatible. Occasional superficial similarities in practice must never obscure the radical difference between the two. Asceticism renounces possessions. Simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective. Asceticism finds no place for a “land flowing with milk and honey.” Simplicity rejoices in this gracious provision from the hand of God. Asceticism finds contentment only when it is abased. Simplicity knows contentment in both abasement and abounding (Phil. 4:12).

Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us. Without simplicity we will either capitulate to the “mammon” spirit of this present evil age, or we will fall into an un-Christian legalistic asceticism. Both lead to idolatry. Both are spiritually lethal.

Descriptions of the abundant material provision God gives his people abound in Scripture. “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…a land…in which you will lack nothing” (Deut. 8:7–9). Warnings about the danger of provisions that are not kept in proper perspective also abound. “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth’” (Deut. 8:17).

The Spiritual Discipline of simplicity provides the needed perspective. Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep and can be freely shared with others. Once we recognize that the Bible denounces the materialist and the ascetic with equal vigor, we are prepared to turn our attention to the framing of a Christian understanding of simplicity.”

Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (Perfectbound 20th Anniversary Edition) 83-85.

I explored my word for the year (share) in this classic work and came on this long section on simplicity.

I won’t add much except this thought. Without simplicity, which is the proper relationship with money and possessions, we cannot practice generosity. It helps us reorient our lives.

If part of this long reading struck you, reflect on it with Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what the Father wants you to learn in order to grow more into Christlikeness.

May God help each of us excel in simplicity to enhance our generosity so we enjoy and share His blessings for His glory.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Luke 12:32-33

“A more reasonable estimate of human costs and values will lead us to think that no labour is better expended than that which explores the way to the treasure-houses of the Spirit, and shows mankind where to find those goods which are increased by being shared, and which none can take from us.”

William Ralph Inge in Personal Religion and the Life of Devotion (London: Paternoster, 1924) 18.

Sit in this idea: that the Spirit gives us goods that are increased by being shared. It’s countercultural, counterintuitive, counter everything we’ve ever been taught to think. Welcome to life in the Kingdom!

I was reading Dallas Willard’s classic work, Spirit of the Disciplines, when I saw he quoted Inge. Thankfully, I was able to locate this old book that inspired Willard. So, I bought a copy of the 1924 hardcover for $2.56 plus shipping on Amazon.

I will to give it to my wife, Jenni. She’s the most wonderful person on earth. She points people to the Treasure-houses of the Spirit, where goods are increased by being shared.

If this sounds crazy then all I can say is to put the idea into practice to figure it out as you live it out, that you won’t end up empty by sharing generously but you will be enriched in every way!

Hear me (or really Inge) again. “No labour is better expended than that which explores the way to the treasure-houses of the Spirit.” Focus on gathering and sharing spiritual riches today.

God might just make you a conduit of divine love like Jenni is, and like I am learning to be. But I have a lot to learn. There’s hope for the rest of us!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 1 John 3:1

“[Salvation] is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God.

I know the words “leave it to God” can be misunderstood, but they must stay for the moment. The sense in which a Christian leaves it to God is that he puts all his trust in Christ: trusts that Christ will somehow share with him the perfect human obedience which He carried out from His birth to His crucifixion: that Christ will make the man more like Himself and, in a sense, make good his deficiencies.

In Christian language, He will share His “sonship” with us, will make us, like Himself, “Sons of God”…Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in accepting that very remarkable offer.

But the difficulty is to reach the point of recognising that all we have done and can do is nothing. What we should have liked would be for God to count our good points and ignore our bad ones.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins 1980) 128.

This post is about generosity and the good kind of despair.

Whether we like it or not, we want God to count our good points and ignore our bad ones, and what God desires is that we despair of doing anything for ourselves.

The gift that everyone gets who chooses this despair is “everything for nothing.”

That’s a gift that should be shared widely with others. It’s truly a remarkable offer. Where can you find that from marketers and merchandise peddlers? Nowhere.

While this post does not relate to financial giving, it has everything to do with the best kind of giving.

The gift, as the professor so eloquently puts it, is “perfect human obedience” which Christ carried out and wants to grant to us. God help us put this gift to use and share it with others.

I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. Philemon 1:6

“If you have any faith, give me, for heaven’s sake, a share of it! Your doubts you may keep to yourself, for I have plenty of my own.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 223.

As I consider where I will dig next in deeper study, I am returning to my word for the year: share.

Today, the Apostle Paul reminds us that when we share our faith we grow to understand more fully all the good things we have in Christ. And Goethe reminds us that if we have faith, for heaven’s sake we must share it for the benefit of those around us, while keeping our doubts to ourselves.

The world is filled with doubts and troubles. As every generation has hard times, let’s lift up those around us by reflecting on the good things we have in Christ and share all we discover generously.