Nickels

Let’s say I have a nickel in my pocket. I don’t, but let’s say I do.
A nickel isn’t much at all, but it is my only nickel. I have a delusion that this nickel could really go a long way but deep down I know it is just a nickel.
Now let’s say a man comes to me and offers me a deal. He says that he has pockets bulging with hundred dollar bills. He has so much that he wants to give it all away, and he has come up to me personally to give me some. Unfortunately there is a catch. I have to give up my nickel, my only nickel, if I want to get one of his hundred dollar bills. It is a hard decision.
It may sound ridiculous but we are offered a proposition like this every day and most of us refuse to give our nickels.
We are nothing. Most of our lives will never even get close to touching history. We make no impact that lasts longer than a century at best. The very best we can do with all of our strength and wisdom is become liked for a couple years by people who are also going to die pretty soon. Chances are, no one is going to remember you in a hundred years because your life won’t matter that much.
Wow, now that is a real bummer.
If this were all there was to humanity it wouldn’t even be worth talking about. In the words of announcers of infomercials everywhere- “But wait, there’s more!”
If all you could ever obtain was a nickel you have no point of living at all, but the thing is you have the capability of obtaining a pocket full of hundred dollar bills. God wants to give you eternity and destiny, wisdom and power, but above all purpose and meaning. He created you to amount to more than a nickel. All you have to do is give up the nickel.
Let’s say you have two nickels in your pocket. Two whole nickels! The same man comes to you and offers you the same deal. You saw that he gave a hundred dollar bill to me for the cost of one nickel, so you get this idea in your head. What if you only gave part of what was in your pocket? You could still receive the blessing but never have to risk losing everything.
The cost for what God wants to give you isn’t any specific amount; it is whatever you have in your pocket. Two nickels for a hundred dollar bill is still a deal no one can wrap their head around but it seems it is harder give it all when you have more to give.
Up until recently I honestly thought I had given everything in me to God. I didn’t think I was holding back and I was wondering why God wasn’t holding up His end of the bargain. Then God showed me more nickels in my pocket.
The thing about the change in our pocket is that the only reason it is there is because it was given to us. They weren’t ever ours in the first place, but God’s. Imagine if Thomas Jefferson was the man wanting your nickels. It would be a lot harder to deny him when you realize it is his face on your nickels.
The nickel I had been holding on to was my idea of what God wanted for me. It was almost as if I was saying “God I will give you this nickel if and only if you give me the hundred dollar bill that has the exact serial number I tell you.” We want God to give us our idea of what is perfect for us or we won’t give Him all of us.
Think about Abraham.
Abraham used to be called Abram and had been called that his whole life, which was a long time. Abram was pretty old, like really old. One starry night God tells Abram that one day he will have more descendants than the stars in the sky. He tells him that through him will be born a great nation. Did I mention he was old? His wife was old too, way too old to be giving birth to anybody.
Fast forward a little bit and we see that Isaac is born despite his parents’ old age and Abram is now Abraham which means father of many nations. Abraham can now see that what God promised is actually going to happen. Then everything changes.
God says to Abraham in Genesis 22:2 “Take your son, your only Son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
But God!? You promised nations to come from me and now you are taking away my only heir. He is my only nickel!
Sometimes the things we are holding on to are good things that God has promised us. The bottom line though, is that we can’t give God our entire heart if we have reserved a piece of it for someone else or for something that God has promised. We cannot have both hands to the plow when one hand is holding on to what we think God should be giving us, or even what He promised us.
To be a disciple means that you are daily searching your pockets for more nickels you can trade in for hundred dollar bills.
Abraham got what he was promised because he showed that he loved God more than the things that he was promised from him. He was willing to give everything he had to get so much more.
Jim Eliot once said “He is no fool who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Give up the stupid nickel, God has more for you than that.