How Lunch in a Brown Paper Bag Saves Lives … not just money

Resource:  An Invisible Thread    

I know you are thinking that this post is about saving money by taking your lunch to work or school.  Well, you can save money by taking your lunch but this is about something more important .  Stewardship includes not only carrying your own load to the extent possible, but then going the step further and making enough to give to others.

In Ephesians 4:28 the apostle Paul says ‘Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he have something to share with him who has need.’

When someone’s life is changed by faith in Jesus Christ, their behavior is changed.  If before you knew grace, you stole from others, then afterwards you are to steal no longer.  We are to do good work with own own hands, and have something to share with someone in need. This is not about tithing or donating to charities.  This is personal.  This is being able to share with those around you as you are able.

An Invisible Thread  by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski is a recently published book about the true story of Laura Schroff, an advertising executive in New York who meets a young boy Maurice who is hungry and pan-handling on the street.   The average response of just walking past people on the street is caught in motion when her heart is caught by the words  “…I’m hungry”.

From that point on Laura and Maurice develop a life long friendship of support and care that has continued for over 26 years.  You might think that this is a story of just how Laura helped Maurice and made a difference in his life and the man he becomes.  But stories are not one sided.  The real story is how we affect one another and this book is an excellent example of the love we can give as well as the love we can receive.   Both Laura and Maurice benefit and both Laura and Maurice have a great respect for one another.

When Maurice is given the choice of money to buy lunch or to have lunch made for him to pick up on his way to school, Maurice chooses a lunch made for him.  He asks that it be in a brown paper bag because when he sees kids at school with a lunch in a brown paper bag, he knows that someone cares about them.  He wants the world to know someone cares about him.

Stewardship is not just about living within your means and planning for emergencies.  Stewardship can bring balance and freedom and open the doors of opportunity to participate in the lives of the people around you and both be blessed and be a blessing.  You might stop at thinking that Laura is the one being a good steward and being able to feed a hungry boy.  But don’t stop there,  Maurice was also a steward of his resources. His time is all he had but he was using it to do the one thing he could do to help himself and his family and that was to ask for help.

An Invisible Thread  is currently on the New York Times best seller list and available everywhere.  You can order it from Amazon by clicking on the book title.

Once again we see that principles of stewardship are not rules to follow in order to maintain some standard of what culture considers a normal life and to be conformed to someone else’s view of how we are to live.  We are not conformed to the world’s ways, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds to follow Jesus not to be limited in life, but rather to live life abundantly in all things.

It’s not about the money.