The late Danny Thomas was one of the most successful comedians of his day, but early in his career money was tight. At one point, he lost his life savings of $600 at a time when he was out of work. He and his wife, Rosie, had a baby on the way, and they needed money. Danny worked at part-time jobs so Rosie could buy groceries. He also borrowed money from friends. It was a tough time in his life. A week before the baby was born, Danny had the grand total of $7.85 to his name. What would he do? “My despair led me to my first exposure to the powers of faith,” Danny would later recall. On Sunday morning Danny went to church. When the offering plate was passed, he put in his “usual one dollar.” But something unexpected happened that day. A special missions offering was taken. The priest explained where the mission offering would go, and Danny felt he had to give something. “I got carried away,” Danny said, “and ended up giving my seven dollars.”
He had given away all his money that Sunday. What in the world had he done? He walked up to the altar rail, got on his knees, and prayed aloud. “Look, I’ve given my last seven bucks,” he prayed. “I need it back tenfold because I’ve got a kid on the way, and I have to pay the hospital bill.” He went home with a mere 85 cents in his pocket–all the money he had in the world.
“You won’t believe this,” Danny Thomas later wrote, “but the next morning the phone rang in the rooming house hall.” It was a job offer. He was offered a part in a commercial. The job wasn’t much, but the pay was good–$75. “I literally dropped the telephone receiver,” Danny remembered. “First I whooped with joy; then an eerie feeling came over me.” He remembered what he had prayed at church the day before. “The seventy-five dollar fee, unheard of for me at that time, was almost exactly 10 times the amount of money I had donated to the church.”
Our Finance Committee has started the task of prayerfully formulating the budget for 2019. The budgeting process is certainly a “faith endeavor” because there are no guarantees of funds to be given. Yet, we can trust a faithful God and a faithful people who will give a tithe to the Lord’s work on the Lord’s Day. Malachi 3:10 says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts; if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.