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Religious: When enough is truly enough
Pastor Eric J. Kregel
for South Peace News
The light of the sun could still be seen over the amber colored tree-line. Summer held its fury, baking the prairie lands as midnight loomed and the stillness of the forest reigned.
Emerging from the bush on the summit that cradled the missionary’s camp came the Cree warrior. In his hands he held a fearsome hatchet, the perfect tool for cutting through spruce and poplar. He knelt beside the fireside, facing the white man across the smoke and light.
In his best English, the Warrior stated his purpose.
“I come to make peace with God. As a gift, I bring this fine tool. I ask if this is enough to bring peace between God and me.”
The missionary downcast, eyes pointed to the fire.
“No,” the missionary said. “It is not enough.”
The warrior left heavy-hearted.
Time elapsed as the days grew shorter. The bite and chill of the fall came, as leaves escaped from their trees. The ground crackled, the air filled of rain and pine, and game flooded the woods.
On a crisp September night, the Cree warrior returned to the summit which was home to the Christian missionary.
The warrior held a bow and arrow. The bow marked with several pictures depicting the hunting exploits and victories of the warrior. He made the bow when he was young, aided by his grandfather. The bow was as old as many of his fellow warriors, but still could send an arrow through the neck of a bear or stop a moose in its sprint.
“I bring gift,” the warrior said. “A bow and all of my arrows. It is a gift to your God. I want your God to be my God. Is this enough to make peace with God?”
He laid the gift in the fire, allowing it be consumed instantaneously.
“No,” the missionary said. “It is not enough.”
The warrior left heavy-hearted.
Fall turned to winter as the sun vanished behind the steel-colored clouds and the frozen horizon. Wind whipped across the land, freezing it to a rigid ice. The warrior returned to the roaring fire on the first day of the European calendar. Folded in his arms rested a thick, full blanket made from buffalo hide and fur.
The warrior laid it upon the fire with a belch of smoke devouring the blanket instantly.
“I bring this as a gift to your God,” he said. “Is this enough to make peace with Him?”
“No,” the missionary said. “It is not enough.”
The warrior left heavy-hearted.
The snow retreated, the land became soft and wet with rain. The sky’s tears fell over the land, turning the wide fields of snow into a swamp.
One night, wet and cold from the rain, the warrior returned to the summit of the missionary.
The warrior held nothing, brought nothing to the summit. He knelt before the fire. With sadness in his voice, tears stained his face as he spoke.
“I have nothing left to give to your God. I bring only myself. I give myself and all that I am, can do, and own before your God. I wish to make your God my God. Is this enough to make peace with your God?”
“Yes,” the missionary said. “That is enough.”
I learned this story, decades ago, from my ministry with Christian Service Brigade. I had forgotten most of it until recently, when my study of the Bible brought me to Romans 12:1: “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”
There is a myth that we can be a Christian and still do everything we please, fitting God into our lives when it is convenient. However, scripture says that the opposite is true: we are to give everything to God, daily surrendering our lives to Him.
This is tough, which is why we daily use God for help with this task. However, we begin this journey of faith by saying, like the warrior, “I give myself and all that I am, can do, and own before God.”
God, then, gives us the grace to fill in the difference of our offering.
And this shall be enough.
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