On Sunday, March 16, I spoke in my church about our spending habits. Before anyone gets nervous I want to put you at ease and let you know that I was talking primarily about our time.

When I was in Haiti in February of this year as I was going through our team devotional that Northwest Haiti Christian Mission had given to us one of the verses stood out to me. It was Isaiah 58:10…

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The question that hit me after reading that was “what am I spending myself on?” and that was the question/bottom line that I gave to the people at my church on Sunday. It also “haunted” me the rest of my time while I was in Haiti. I determined that I wanted to make sure that I did what I could to make sure that I spent myself doing what I could in behalf of the hungry and the oppressed.

One of the ways that I did this was by making PVC walkers for some of the kids in the Miriam Center, which is where the special needs program is at the orphanage. We started off by making one for Gildine, who is in the picture to the left. Gildine is about 5 years old and the size of a two year old. She is also blind. When my wife and I met Gildine we fell in love with her. She is such a sweet little girl.

We sized Gildine up and began to prototype the PVC walker for her. The only thing we had to go on was a picture that Autumn, who works in the Miriam Center, had on her iPhone. My wife went to work on making the seats and I worked on cutting & assembling the PVC. After making this one for Gildine and adding wheels to it with the help of a friend who was on our team. The time came to put Gildine in her walker. As Autumn put her in and I witnessed Gildine’s first steps I felt God whisper in my heart, “you helped the lame to walk.” It was an overwhelming emotional experience for me.

After that I made 8 more and I can honestly say that I spent myself. I don’t even know how many hours I spent hunched over cutting PVC and making these walkers, but I am so glad that I did. It was one of the best things I could have done. Every time I see Autumn post pictures on Facebook of kids in walkers it brings my heart great joy knowing that I was part of it. It was worth spending myself on.

Just because I am not in Haiti right now doesn’t mean that I can’t keep spending myself. I just need to figure out other ways to do it. I ask you the same question I asked my self and that I asked the people at my church on Sunday, “what are you spending yourself on?“

If you want to watch or listen to my message you can do so here: hittheriver.com/sermons/spending-habits