Able

 Having laid the foundation of a new home for his family, a father proceeded to begin building the walls one brick at a time. Repeatedly slathering mortar, then laying bricks, the man was lost in the repetitive nature of the task. Everything around him blurred, became indistinct, and all there was, was the sound of the dowel scraping against the bucket of mortar and the squishy sound the brick made when pressed down into it. There’s no other way to go about it, the man thought to himself. One brick at a time, ensuring it’s flat against its predecessor until it’s done. Some things just take time, and there’s no way around it. Impatience will only serve to get it wrong. Then you have to tear it down and start anew.

The man continued the steady pace of his labors until, out of the corner of his eye, he saw his young son come to the wall and lay a small stone down onto one of the bricks. The man smiled and asked his son what he was doing, and smiling back at him, his son said, “I’m helping build our house.”

Months later, as they sat around their kitchen table for their first meal in their newly finished home, the man of the house proceeded to say grace, thanking God for His goodness, blessing, their meal, and at long last for his son, who had helped him build the house. The father opened one eye to check on the boy’s reaction; sure enough, he was beaming ear to ear.

Fathers remember when sons lend a hand, and sons bask in the gratitude of their fathers. It’s not so much how much they do, as long as they do it joyfully, within their ability, and with pure intentions. Every parent knows when their child is doing something out of a desire to be helpful and when they are doing something in the hope of getting something in return.

They know when something is done out of sincerity or with the vested interest of wanting to leverage their perceived kindness and goodness at a later time. Would I prefer my daughters do everything they do out of a sincere desire to help? Yes, I would. Is it the case? Hardly. They’re children, and they know how to work an angle as well as any adult I’ve ever met.

If we as parents know the intent of our children’s actions, how much more does God our heavenly Father know the intent of His children’s actions? We do the work because it is what we have been tasked with. The reward is a bonus, the icing on the cake, the cherry on the milkshake.

We don’t do good wondering what our reward for doing it will be; we do good because it is one of the byproducts of having a renewed mind. It has become our nature. We are no longer self-obsessed, concerned only for the flesh, for the here and now, but are compelled to preach the good news of the gospel, reach out to comfort the hurting, and feed the hungry, knowing that everything we have belongs to Him in the first place. Whether it’s your intellect, your ability to convey information, your material situation, or whatever gifting you’ve been given, use it for His glory, and you will have made the greatest of investments.

Certain truths are so oft repeated that they become cliché. That we can’t take anything with us when we die is one of those truths that generations have repeated, not because they couldn’t think of anything better, but because they couldn’t think of anything truer.

I suppose you can take the route of the hedonist, thinking that he who dies with the most toys wins in the end, but what have they really won? They’re still dead, and they squandered the one life they had, not doing anything meaningful or of eternal worth. Nice car and all, but it’s still just metal, plastic, and rubber in the end.

Although what the reward He brings with Him is not detailed within the pages of Scripture, we do have some clues as to what it may contain.

Daniel 12:3, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”

What does that mean? I don’t know, but it sounds kind of cool. Between being dull and muted and shining like the stars forever, the latter sounds more appealing than the former. Although I don’t subscribe to the notion of pet dinosaurs in heaven, if we were to extrapolate what Daniel wrote and take it to its rightful conclusion, some in heaven will shine brighter than others. You’ll know who worked and who didn’t based on their brightness.

That’s when all pretense will be laid asunder. If you’re dull in heaven, you can’t boast about leading thousands to Christ anymore, can you? It will be interesting to see those who never boasted of their reach or how many they turned to righteousness shine like the brightness of the firmament because rather than spending their days feeding their egos and bragging about themselves, they worked. There is nothing hidden that will not be known. There is nothing secret that will not come to light, whether for your glory or your shame. Even if it’s not in this life, all things will be known.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Work

 It’s not loving; it’s insidious. Telling someone that they’re perfect just the way they are when they obviously aren’t isn’t showing grace and love to the individual, but a roundabout way of making you feel like a good person. You weren’t being a good person, and you weren’t being a good friend. You were just being selfish and trying to feed your own ego.

When you whitewash someone’s life and give them the thumbs up, insinuating that they’ve climbed as high as they can climb and can now make camp and rest easy by the roadside, you give them permission to quit, to give up, to throw in the towel, and merely exist. Breathe in, breathe out, eat, defecate, sleep, wake up, and repeat the cycle until, one day, you go to sleep and never wake up again.

That’s what individuals who make it seem as though surrendering to God is the end of someone’s journey and not the beginning are actually doing.

“Raise your hand, and receive Jesus in your heart! Hallelujah! Welcome to the family of God.”

“What now?”

“Now you just park your rear in one of those padded seats and wait for Jesus to return. Oh, and don’t forget to pay your tithe.”

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Raise a hand, walk the aisle, and you’re set. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Mention the word work or any synonym or derivative thereof to some believers, and they’d rather you’d doused them with gasoline and set them on fire.

You can see the physical metamorphosis in their face, from cheery, smiling, and conversational to frustrated and angry to the point of feral madness. How dare you insinuate that we must do anything other than raise our hand and once at that?

Revelation 22:12-13, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

Payment presupposes labor. Reward presupposes having performed an action worthy of it. When He returns, His reward will be distributed in accordance with the individual’s work. What’s more, it is He who will determine the value of the individual’s work and not the individual. There’s an old adage that something is worth only as much as someone’s willing to pay for it. Thankfully, God is generous.

But that’s not equality of outcome. I thought we were all guaranteed an equal piece of the reward pie. No, it’s not, and no, we weren’t. It’s equality of opportunity. We all have that, and no one can take it away from you. You can do as much for the Kingdom of God as any man or woman that came before you. There is nothing standing in your way, there is nothing stopping you, and there is nothing impeding your quest. The only roadblock is you. Your willingness to step out in faith, your willingness to suffer hardship, and your willingness to labor.

It doesn’t matter what version of the Bible you look at or if you go back to the original Greek, each one says that when He returns, He will give every one according to their work and not their faith. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, but the reward He comes to distribute is to every one according to their work.

Don’t kill the messenger; it’s what the Bible says. Not only that, it’s a direct quote uttered by none other than He, who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

Whose report will you believe? I guess it’s easier to sing it than to live it.

It’s not my job to look at my neighbor’s field and see how much he’s sown. It’s not my job to gauge how much effort he’s put into his labor because everyone is rewarded based on their work and not by how persnickety they were about judging another’s. If I spend my days itemizing where everyone else failed in their labors, I’ll have nothing to show the Master as far as the work I did or was supposed to do.

He’s already got the ledgers, He already has everyone’s time card, and whether or not they took to the tasks they were given with gusto and consistency. He’ll figure out the accounting. That’s not my job, and it’s not your job. Then again, sitting in judgment of how everyone is doing their work is a lot less taxing than doing the work ourselves, isn’t it?

If someone asks for my help as to how they should go about plowing a field or planting seeds, I’m glad to help and show them, but I can’t do the work for them. That part they must do on their own because it is their labors that will be rewarded, and not the labor they talked someone else into doing for them.

You can’t outsource your work to another. You are not a corporation looking to maximize profits, you are a servant of God, called to labor in His harvest field, and your reward will be commensurate with your labors. If you were given much, much will be required. If you were given little, then that little you were given will also be required of you.

God is just, He is righteous, and He is all-knowing. There is nothing you’ve done or will do for His name’s sake that will be overlooked or ignored. Small or great, whatever it may be, He will reward you according to your work in a manner He will see fit.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

One

 There isn’t a gospel for the rich and one for the poor. There isn’t a gospel for those with disposable income and those living paycheck to paycheck. There is only one gospel, and it encompasses everyone.

It will never be about how much you have. Some people can have the world and still feel as though they don’t have enough, and others have barely two pennies to rub together, and they will seem like the most generous people ever to walk the earth. Our family didn’t have much growing up, but you could always get a meal at our table, even if mom and grandma just added water and Vegeta to the soup pot.

For the uninitiated, no, I wasn’t typing in tongues. For anyone with a tangential knowledge of Eastern Europe, especially Romania, Hungary, Bosnia, Croatia, Poland, or Ukraine, you know what I mean when I say Vegeta. It was the magic ingredient every European grandma had close at hand, consisting of some salts, flavor enhancers, dehydrated vegetables, and spices. If it says no MSG, you already know it’s not going to be good, so they never put that on their packaging. It’s refreshing to have a company understand what it is and who its customers are and not shy away from it. Who’s got time to worry about MSG once you’ve watched the Chernobyl cloud passing overhead from your front porch?

It may not have adhered to the food pyramid, but there was always something to eat in our home. It wasn’t because we were living in abundance but because my parents’ hearts knew no other way of being than charitable and hospitable. As far as the food pyramid goes, allow me my skepticism on that front. It may just be the circles I run in, but that pyramid hasn’t done anything to improve people’s waistlines over the last few decades.

It’s easy for the root of bitterness to get out of control if our reaction to anyone doing something selfless and kind is, “Of course they did; they can afford it.” You may not be able to build a hospital wing, but you can afford to give a glass of water to someone thirsty. You may not be able to feed a thousand homeless, but you can share a pizza with someone who is hungry.  

Would you rather be the homeless person under the bridge waiting to receive a meal or the person bringing a meal to the homeless person living under the bridge? Whenever I read the passage about giving being better than receiving, I always put it in that context.

If you are blessed enough to help another human being, then help them. If you were in their position, you would pray that someone had the heart to help you. I know people who are generous because it is their nature to be so. It’s not because they have more money than they can count but because when they budget the money they do have, they always make an allowance for those who have less than them.

The truth of it is that there are generous rich people, and there are stingy poor people. It’s not about how much is in the bank account; it’s about what’s in your heart and how you perceive this life. If your entire vision is the here and now, you will strive to accumulate as much as you can, only to have your wife, kids, or grandkids give it away or sell it for pennies on the dollar once you’re gone.

If, however, your vision extends beyond this present life, if eternity is a reality for you, then you will act in accordance with the knowledge that everything you do reflects upon the One you serve, and one day He will recompense you for all that you do in His name.

“Well, it took him a minute, but there he goes jumping on the bandwagon. In no time, he’ll be talking about planting jalapeno seeds.”

No, I won’t because God’s not running a Ponzi scheme where you put in a dollar to get back two or two hundred. That He expects His servants not to turn their backs on the needs of the widow and orphan, however, is Biblical, and it shouldn’t be something we should shy away from discussing.

God’s concern is the condition of my heart and if it is sensitive to His urging. His concern is that I do not harden my heart toward the needs of others but do unto them as I would have them do unto me.

There is a difference between compassion and acceptance, validation, or celebration. I can feel compassion for an individual’s lot in life without validating or agreeing with their life choices or the things they did to bring them to where they are.

If your concern is that they would use the money you give them in a self-destructive manner, buy them a meal with the money and hand it to them. Do good. Be light. Represent the King in the best way you can because the world is just looking for an excuse to demean Him.

There are enough people roaming about doing their worst to cast a shadow on those of the Way; don’t be one of them. Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your Lord. All will be held to account, and none will escape His omniscience. All will be known; all will be revealed, and all will be recompensed.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Comparative

 When you think about it, everything past generations did on behalf of the Kingdom was more difficult to carry out than it is for this present generation. Whether the speed of travel, safety concerns, or ability to connect with heretofore unknown individuals, all of it was harder and more taxing. Yet, somehow, those of this present generation are less willing than the generations that came before them to do anything meaningful, or that would get them out of their comfort zone for the glory and kingdom of God.

The promise of reward remains the same, but the willingness of the servants has waned from generation to generation. You can say they don’t make them like that anymore, and for the most part, it’s true of self-professing Christians as well. We don’t want to exert ourselves; we don’t want to get our hands dirty, and we don’t want to feel uncomfortable, no matter what Jesus promised He would recompense us upon His return.

If someone dares to exert themselves, if someone dares to labor, then those pretending to are quick to hobble the individual because he’s making them look bad. What if the sheep catch onto the fact that the upper echelon of Hillsong crooners stay in hotels that cost more per night than they make in a month? What if the sheep begin to assemble the pieces and realize that the mission field the pampered and elite say they were called to usually involves sun, palm trees, and a relaxed atmosphere?

What a glorious thing to be able to witness to your cabana boy in between bringing you drinks. Look out, George Muller, you’ve got some competition now. Co-pastor-reverend-prophetess to the nations Gigi McGee is tackling the actual mission field from a hammock in Fiji while recovering from a medical procedure because it sounds better than saying she’s recovering from Botox lip filler. Makes you look kind of dumb trying to feed orphans and widows.

I have no problems with anyone making coin, just don’t call yourself a missionary, pastor, bishop, or evangelist while doing it. Call yourself an entertainer, a guru, a life coach, even a visionary if you must, even though we both know you aren’t, but don’t drag Jesus into your grift, and don’t bilk the children of God in order to sustain your rock star lifestyle. A workman is worthy of his hire, but there are wage brackets. Everyone notices when you reach the level of obscene, whether in the church or the world.

It used to be missionaries boarded ships they had to be on for weeks, if not months on end, to travel halfway across the world and preach the gospel with only the clothes on their backs, uncertain of whether or not they’d ever make it back home. They ventured into the unknown without the benefit of an itinerary, contacts, funds, or a pocket translator. They had to depend on God for everything from guiding the way to finding someone that could interpret for them once they arrived at their destination. It was a crash course in trusting God to be sure, and those who went were truly sent and weren’t just playing at trying to win Cabo for Jesus during spring break.

Bible smugglers not only had to acquire the Bibles they distributed, but brave interrogations, governments, tortures, and dangers, all so they could get the Bibles into the hands of those who needed them. None of them were guaranteed safe passage or that they’d make it back to their homeland, but they did what they had to because it was required of them. They were needed, and they stood in the gap. God called, and they answered.

God is still calling, but those answering seem to be fishing for an angle, trying to have their cake and eat it too. It’s not that our ability to obey has lessened, but our willingness to obey has. If I’m going to devote my life to ministry, then my name better be up in lights. If I’m going to pursue my calling, there better be a payoff. There will be, but Jesus never promised it would be while you were here. It is when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory that those who suffered loss for His sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.

Why do we lack the motivation and dedication to do so when we have the greatest opportunity in the world’s history to reach the lost? It’s easier than ever, yet the number of those reticent to speak of their faith and proclaim the name of Jesus increases evermore. If you’re waiting for God to beg, He won’t. If you choose to keep silent, the stones will cry out because God doesn’t implore. He commands.

Whatever you choose, know that the shallow, superficial, and trivial will not sustain you in the long term. Whether it’s James or Kansas, the message is the same. Life is a vapor, dust in the wind, a fleeting thing that begins to unravel as soon as we are born, and the only thing that matters, what remains, what persists and echoes into eternity, is what you did in service to the King.

All the things men prize and aspire to will be cold comfort when they are returned to the mud, and the cheers of their contemporaries are heard no more. Do as unto Him that you might receive from Him that which He has promised.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Hierarchy

 Take out a sheet of paper, number it from one to ten, then itemize the most important things in your life. Be honest with yourself; it’s a pointless exercise if you’re not. No one’s going to see it anyway. No one will judge you if your poodle is a few notches higher than your in-laws or if skincare inched out diet by a rung or two. Assuming you’ve done as I asked, now look on the list and see where God is. Hopefully, He’s on there.

If God’s on the list, it’s a start anyway, but He’s not just supposed to be on the list, but number one with a bullet. In the beginning, God. That should be the motto of the believer throughout their existence, and if that is the case, then wherever their journey takes them, God’s presence will be perpetual.

The point of the exercise is to put God first in all things, all the time, even if, in certain instances, it may be detrimental to your flesh. This mindset is not a gift but a self-imposed practice that becomes habitual given enough time.

A Christian’s hierarchy of needs will always have God at the top of the pyramid, and everything else will flow from that singularly irreplaceable need. Enough songs have been written about men needing the presence of God every hour, every day, all the time, all our lives, whether in joy or pain. You’ve likely sung them, as have I, and hopefully, we weren’t singing lies. Lest our lives be vain and our journey pointless, His presence must abide in our lives, and nothing can take the place of Him on the throne of our hearts.

That’s the way it should be, anyway. Still, once again, spiritual leaders across every denomination felt obliged to make allowances and reinterpret Scripture in that God is not all in all but a portion of the whole. Every day, that slice of the pie that we claim belongs to God gets smaller and shrinks, while the portion we reserved for other things grows and expands.

One must eventually push out the other altogether. One must reign supreme in the heart of man. Whether it’s God or the world, God or your flesh, God or your passions, God or your vices, God or your sin that wins, it depends on which you choose to suffocate and stifle and which you choose to fuel. We can’t say, Lord, cleanse me in one breath, but in another, present Him with a list of things He can’t touch. Fire is indiscriminate. When you ask God to burn out the dross, He will burn out the dross, not just the dross you feel you can live without or the one that your flesh really enjoys.

You can’t ask the Lord to burn away alcoholism even though you don’t like to drink but not go anywhere near lust because you like to dip your toe into ‘what could be if only’ once in a while. Fire is not selective that way, and when you try to hamstring God regarding your sanctification, He will leave you to the desires of your heart.

God can’t force you to be holy. He commands that you be holy. Not just on Sundays, on the Sabbath, or during the remembrance of His resurrection, but in all your conduct, be holy, for He is a holy God. The things your flesh doesn’t want to give up must be first to go.

The parable of the rich young ruler is multi-layered in the lessons it can teach us on this front. He’d done the things that came easiest to him, but deep down, he knew the hard thing was yet to come. If you look at it objectively, this young man was more virtuous than most pastors today. He didn’t commit adultery; he didn’t steal; he didn’t bear false witness; he honored his mom and dad and even loved his neighbor like himself. All those things were easier for him to accomplish than giving up his possessions, selling everything, giving it to the poor, and following after Christ.

Because he had great possessions and his heart was tethered to them, doing that one thing was more difficult than doing all the other things put together. Take on your Goliath first, defeat him utterly, then everything else you need to work on will seem like a breeze. If you put it off until tomorrow, the next day, or next year, your Goliath will keep eating and getting bigger and stronger. 

Even the world sees the benefits of doing the difficult thing first. There was even a book written about it some years ago called Eat the Frog! Some people spend half their lifetime warming up to tackle their biggest hindrance; all the while, that hindrance is growing stronger, its roots are growing deeper, and its walls are growing taller. It’s like cleaning out an overly cluttered garage. Telling ourselves that someday we will doesn’t solve the problem, and with each passing day, it gets worse because you’re throwing new stuff on top of the old stuff.

If you’re having difficulty setting time aside to be alone with God, do it first thing upon waking. If you have difficulty reading the Word, do it first thing in the morning. If you are tempted by something you see, remove the means by which you see them from your eyesight. Structure and prioritize your life in such a way wherein God is always first. In the beginning, God. Then everything else follows that singular principle.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Unchanging

 All of you for all of Him. A life for a life. That’s the boilerplate contract, and it will not allow for addendums, additions, subtractions, or carve-outs. For me to insinuate otherwise would be akin to trying to sell you a canoe with a hole in the bottom, insisting that it’s just for viewing the fish. It’s like a porthole on a submarine, only without the window. No, you can’t take it out for a spin on the lake before you pay in full because I’m afraid you’re too inexperienced at rowing and may sink it. Money first, fun later, no returns or refunds.

The time it takes varies, but anyone who’s bought into the lie that you can carve out a tiny sliver of your heart for Jesus and keep the rest for the world has come to the realization that they’ve been sold a bill of goods, and the peace, joy, and fulfillment they were promised for the low, low price of $49.99 per month never materialized. When they go back to the guy or gal with the used car salesman vibe and ask for an explanation, they are summarily told it’s their fault. They didn’t know how to row their boat. The hole in the bottom had nothing to do with it.

That’s the thing that grates the most. For the most part, those seeking Jesus were sincere in their quest. They believed the slavering wolves hiding behind professionally whitened smiles when they insisted that the whole sanctification thing was something old fuddy-duddies talked about before the use of props like Nerf guns and motorcycles during service.

They didn’t have a multi-media presentation, so they had to drone on about holiness unto the Lord and something about all who desired to live godly in Christ Jesus having to suffer persecution. How did preachers fill the time without Hillsong’s music catalog? How did they put sermons together before Chat GPT? Surely they didn’t study to show themselves approved. That would’ve eaten too much into their personal time and taken away from practicing their backswing.

How dare we try to give Him anything less than our all when even at a one-for-one deal, you’re getting an unimaginable, invaluable trade? Even if I were to compare trading in a Yugo for a Ferrari and getting a truckload of cash on top doesn’t come close to the tradeoff you and I got exchanging our broken, darkened selves for His light and life.

Some offers you just can’t improve upon. You can’t get any freer than free, with eternal life thrown in and a reward that He will bring upon His return for anyone who has left anything for His name’s sake.

Even so, oftentimes, we act as though we’re the ones getting the short end of the stick. We act as though we are the prince, and He is the peasant girl we pulled from the dirt, cleaned up, brought into our home, and gave our name to.

I’m fully aware that modernity has taught an entire generation of delusional holders of women’s studies degrees and no job prospects that they are the prize, and any man should feel honored to have them be present. Their presence ought to be the extent of a man’s expectations, for if they are asked to do anything other than scroll social media hoping someone complements them, they’re being misused and abused.

Tragically the church has adopted the selfsame mindset, and we are seeing the effects of it in the faithlessness and duplicity it has bloomed in the hearts of many. If you don’t give me everything I’ve ever wanted without asking for anything in return, I’ll just find another.

If I can’t retain a majority of my heart and keep anything I desire therein, give You a space, perhaps in the attic or the basement, then I call legalism, and that’s not the kind of relationship I’m looking for.

Jesus died, not because He was keen on doing it or because He wanted to experience what death by crucifixion felt like for a man. Jesus died because it was the only way to give you and me life. He died because it was the only means by which we could be reconciled to the Father.

That we would quibble over what we’re willing to give Him in return isn’t just foolish, it’s a slap in the face of grace and the salvific power of His blood.

Throughout the history of mankind, Jesus was one of one. There will never be another like Him. It’s not as though you can wait at the bus stop for another ride or for another deity to come and save your soul.

It’s either Him or nothing. He is the only one that can save, restore, and reconcile. He is the only one whose sacrifice can tip the scales and redeem you from darkness and death. Would that I had ten hearts to give and a thousand lifetimes to sit at His feet, it would not be enough to scratch the surface of repaying Him for what He did on the cross.

If my heart is true and I acknowledge the magnitude of what He did for me, I won’t go around looking for the shortcuts or wondering how I can do less for Him, but every day I’m on this earth, my heart’s cry should be what more can I do?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Tangible

 I learned a lot from my grandfather, and I learned a lot while traveling with him. Nothing helps you better understand human nature and all its facets than interacting with different people every week and having to deliver a message to them that is not pleasant, cheery, or full of unbridled optimism for the future. On the contrary, the messages were challenging and caused many a hackle to bristle.

Because we did what we did as unto the Lord, we had no expectations, good, bad, or otherwise, but some places would take up an offering for the ministry, then hand it to us in a brown paper bag, a hat, a Kroger’s plastic bag, or whatever else they could find. On our return home, we’d go through the bags, finding our fair share of used Kleenex, gum wrappers, and even a half-eaten Lifesaver inside a gum wrapper. My grandmother had thought someone had wrapped a coin in the paper to keep it safe.

The money, what there was of it, always went into the ministry account, and with it, we built dozens of churches, an orphanage, and countless homes.  We provided for the needs of thousands, whether in the form of food, clothing, milk cows, or dug wells, because we saw it as God’s money, and it needed to go toward His work.

It’s hard for some people to process that while we were sending hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid to Romania, my grandfather and I walked the neighborhood collecting aluminum cans to take into the recycling center. If only we’d taken Creflo Dollar’s course on running a ministry, but I digress.

What I learned during the decade I traveled with my grandfather is that while some people are generous, giving, selfless in the most glorious of ways, will give you the shirt off their backs and forfeit a meal just so you could eat, some are juvenile and spiteful and think that by attempting to demean the messenger, they have voided the message.

The lesson I learned from my grandfather was more profound still, and it is one that I’ve held close for the better part of thirty-five years. Anyone who knew my grandfather can attest that he was no fashion icon. Bespoke suits and silk ties were not in his wheelhouse. He was a simple man who was not ashamed of his simplicity because simplicity is not something one should be ashamed of. Hypocrisy, double-mindedness, pride, arrogance, sin, and vice, those are worthy of feeling the burning sting of shame, but simplicity is not.

I couldn’t swear to it, but I can say with a high level of certainty that my grandfather never owned a shirt that cost more than $20. The only extravagance he allowed himself were UGG boots because his feet swelled and hurt, and they were more comfortable than anything else he’d come across. This was also at a time before they were fashionable with teenagers and lonely housewives, but still, they were pricy even back then.

One day we were walking the neighborhood collecting cans when a grungy man in a torn tank top approached us asking for money. I told my grandfather what he wanted, and my grandfather asked what he needed the money for. The man said he needed to buy a sweater because he was cold.

Even though it had been March, it had been unseasonably cold for Southern California. After I relayed the message to my grandfather, he nodded and beckoned the man to follow. We stopped by our garage, left the half-full trash bag of aluminum cans, went around the corner to our apartment, where my grandfather grabbed his wallet, and walked up the street toward the stoplight. Halfway up the street, the man asked where we were going, and after asking my grandfather, he answered, “the store.”

We took a right on Harbor Boulevard, up one block to Orangethorpe Avenue, where once upon a time, there was a Montgomery Ward. That, and a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor. We walked in, found the men’s department, and my grandfather said, “tell him to pick a sweater.”

The man did, and although I don’t remember the brand, I remember it was $28.74 before taxes. You may laugh at the price today, but back then, it was close to a fortune. Just for context, I was wearing homemade pants to school during that time.

We paid for the sweater and gave it to the man. He thanked us several times, and as we were walking home, I asked my grandfather why he hadn’t just given the man one of his old sweaters, then he could have bought a new sweater for himself.

He bent down so he could look me in the eyes and said, “When you give as unto God, you give your best. Always remember that. You don’t give God the things you would have otherwise thrown in a dumpster; you give Him what you, yourself, would have kept and treasured.”

Almost thirty-five years later, it’s still a principle I strive to live by.

When Peter asked what they would have, it wasn’t after spotting Jesus a bowl of fish head soup. It was after leaving everything behind. The twelve that sat with Jesus had burned every bridge, torched every ship, and severed every lifeline and safety net. They were marked men, known to be followers of Christ, no longer able to return to their old lives.

There’s a lot there to think about. One of the most poignant is whether or not you, too, are known far and wide as one of His or if you keep Him secret and hidden afraid of what others might think.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.