Today, I found out that Zooey Deschanel donates $1500/month to charity. Compared to her $95,000 monthly salary, that's a relative pittance, but it was illuminating. I remember that in the 2008 election we discovered that Joe Biden had donated $3000 in his ENTIRE LIFE to charity at that point. Of course, it's not really any of our business, and it's not really about how much or what we do but why.
While on my mission in Austria in 1998, we got involved with this clothing donation service. A woman organized donations that were shipped over to Tibet to refugees from the Chinese government, which has occupied Tibet basically forever. After a while in Vienna, we were also invited to join some others to help sort a particularly large clothing donation before it was sent over. As a consequence, I was able to obtain a free souvenier hat, since the woman told us that Tibetan monks wouldn't wear it. However, there was something far more nefarious afoot.
This woman did not tell the people from whence the clothing originated. In essence, when she arrived, she told people that she had given these clothes to them. While technically true, she was really only the broker; to my knowledge, none of the items ever donated were from her wardrobe. Consequently, she had been relegated to the status of demigod among the people; she would arrive 'from heaven' on a jet to the unsuspecting people who then worshipped and even prayed to her. And people think I am arrogant...
I know a lot of people who do things, not because they're right, but for the accolades. They set up businesses so they can give away money, not to help the people anonymously, but so they can get credit. They donate their time and talents to strangers for recognition while they neglect responsibilities at home. They waste the sustenance earned by loving spouses to earn respect and honor from strangers. They have their reward.
Yesterday, I had a chat with a close friend of mine. He told me "I do not need a mandate to serve. There are things I can do and opportunities I can take advantage of without being told to act". What I really esteem about this man is that he does so quietly and clandestinely. He does not want people to know.
People who do right things for the right reasons don't usually want people to know. They donate anonymously and surreptitously, circumspectly doing things for people who stand in need, even if the needs are small an unglamorous. If identified, they are usually embarassed; it is not in their nature to be praised for doing what they feel they ought. It is in their nature to serve others regardless of circumstance, regardless of consequence.
Most of us who do these things do them to be seen of God. Some of us do them because we hope God will reward us. Some of us do them because we like to participate in the work of God. Some of us do it even when there is no reward, and some few do so even when it seems like an exercise in futility. We do not know what the circumstances will elicit; from bad circumstances, some of the best people have arisen. Some of God's best children have been through deeper and longer troughs than any others. It's because they are willing to pay the price.
A member of my congregation made a surprisingly honest confession. He admitted he wasn't sure he wanted to stand in God's presence again. He wasn't sure he wanted to return. Humans do not desire true nakedness before God as much as they claim; being seen of God in our true selves somtimes means more than that for which we bargain.
On the hat to which I linked, there is a special plume called a "Gam's Bart" in Austria. It is given as a special award to expert hunters. I was given mine as a thank you from a farmer after many hours of work without remuneration because he knew I was looking for one and had an extra. I was never really a hunter, but people in that nation who see it know what it means.
It's a special kind of person who is really seen of God. They're not like normal people. They're a new kind of man, not because of what they do, but because of what they are. The rich people who cast in their money did well; the woman who cast in her mite did more. What costs us little, we esteem very lightly.
I respect people like Zooey for what they do do. I respect the New Men for what they are. I close with some words from CS Lewis:
Already the new men are dotted here and there all over the earth. Some, as I have admitted, are still hardly recognisable: but others can be recognised. Every now and then one meets them. Their very voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off. They are, I say, recognisable; but you must know what to look for. They will not be very like the idea of ‘religious people’ which you have formed from your general reading. They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do, but they need you less. (We must get over wanting to be needed: in some goodish people, specially women, that is the hardest of all temptations to resist.) They will usually seem to have a lot of time: you will wonder where it comes from. When you have recognised one of them, you will recognise the next one much more easily. And I strongly suspect (but how should I know?) that they recognise one another immediately and infallibly, across every barrier of colour, sex, class, age, and even of creeds. In that way, to become holy is rather like joining a secret society. To put it at the very lowest, it must be great fun.
These are the men who are seen of God.
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