The Widow's Might

(If I had known in 1989 how powerfully the woman pictured would impact my life, I would have at least written down her name. But as is the case with so many great stories of our lives, one of the main characters who impacts the story remains anonymous.)

We left Austin, TX in the heat of the summer of 1989. A few hours later we were in the heat of the African winter of 1989 in Lilongwe, Malawi on a mission campaign with World Bible School. Somewhere in the early days of that campaign, the woman in the picture walked to the church building where we teaching. She asked us to come with her to her apartment so that we could talk to her neighbors about Jesus. So we all crammed into the minuscule car we had rented and drove to her apartment. As she unlocked the door, the door frame started coming out of the wall. She shoved it back in place and then welcomed us into her home.

Her home was one room. She had no closet...which was fine, because the only clothes she owned were the ones she was wearing. On the floor she had a reed mat. I assume the reed mat served not only as a floor covering, but a mattress as well. She had a cardboard box. There were a couple of cooking pots. Period. That's all she had.

On our way back to the church building, she asked us to stop at a market so she could get a few things. The stop was a minor inconvenience. It was really no big deal - but another stop meant we stayed crammed into the car for a few minutes longer. And I was impatient. I hadn't really seen a need to leave the church building where many people had gathered in order to go to a woman's house and talk to her two neighbors. After that short delay, she finally returned with a little paper sack containing the things she had bought...presumably what she would eat that day since there was no food at her house. We drove back to the church building singing (no radio) a couple of songs. It was there that we said our goodbyes as she was about to head to the bus stop to ride back to her house. And it was there that she gave us the sack she had brought out of the market. She had a huge smile and insisted that we take it. Which we humbly did. The contents of the sack (and it really wouldn't matter what was in it, would it?) was as follows: 1 avocado, 2 eggs.

One day Jesus looked over at the spot where people were making their offerings and noticed an anonymous woman. No one else saw her. After all, there were some big spenders putting big checks in the collection tray that day. She slowly made her way to the treasury and humbly pulled out such an insignificant sum of money that even a child would ignore it if it were on the ground. Without fanfare she dropped the money into the basket. And no one noticed...except Jesus. (Luke 21:1-4)

I grew up hearing the story as "The Widow's Mite." But as the title of this article reveals - it is really about the widow's might. The woman in Malawi changed my life. I was with her for just a couple of hours. She didn't say anything that I remember. To me, she was unremarkable - in fact, I am quite fortunate to have a picture of her because I was not very interested in going to her house that day, to be honest. But it was there that I learned one of life's greatest lessons...

Life as I know it is best when we stop worrying about all the things we don't have and start using the things we do have to glorify God. How many times do we not act on the Spirit's nudges because we think we lack something? How many times do we fail to reach out because we are afraid others might see that we don't have as much as them? How many times do we fail to give because we are afraid to give away a small portion of our abundance? The widow in Malawi was a mighty woman for God. She used all she had to glorify him, and in return God changed the life of a man she would never see again. And I received both gifts.