By Norris Burkes, Nov 9, 2025
As many of you are pondering your year-end charitable giving, I ask you to consider a woman I met in 1980 while I was the student-pastor of a church in Hopland, Calif.
Like many Baptist pastors of the time, I encouraged members to follow the Biblical teaching of tithing by giving ten percent of their income to charity. As a seminary student, my wife and I had little income, but we modeled that charitable guideline.
Like most clergy, I made a conscious effort to avoid knowing the giving habits of my members. But if I’m being honest, I did note that our offering plates looked like “God’s tip jar,” littered with kids’ coins and sprouting a few dollar bills.
So, I’ll admit that my curiosity was often peaked on the first Sunday of every month when I’d notice an unnamed envelope in the offering plate appear before worship service labeled only “$40.”
Why would this person work so hard to remain anonymous and forgo their tax deduction?
I was clueless until one Sunday I had a chance conversation with Mrs. Ruth, an elderly lady who taught our children’s Sunday school class. She mentioned how hard it was to get by on $400 in Social Security.
Her random mention of that amount resonated with me because the mysterious offering of $40 would be ten percent of Ruth’s income.
A few Sundays later, Ruth arrived early and walk through our sanctuary and out a side door to prepare her children’s Sunday School class. But I couldn’t help but notice that she had paused at the altar to drop an envelope in the offering plate.
With no one around, I examined the previously empty offering plate and found only one envelope marked $40.
Wow, I was no math whiz, but ten percent of the nearly-nothing $400 social security check was $40.
The woman, literally poor as a church mouse, was giving what she believed God required of her. Her sacrifice broke my heart and inspired me to be a more generous person.
To this day, I have never again examined the personal contributions of my parishioners.
However, I find “the members of the 2023 Forbes 400 list have collectively given more than $250 billion to charity, by our count—less than 6% of their combined net worth.”
Impressive, right? Jesus wouldn’t think so.
One day he was sitting with his disciples watching the rich contribute large sums to the temple. Out of nowhere, a widow appeared gripping two small coins called “mites,” the smallest of currency. Without fanfare, she slipped the coins into the collection box.
Jesus pounced on the moment to make a point to his disciples, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford — she gave her all” (Mark 12:41 ff).
Jesus probably still sees colossal contributions shamefully paltry sums next to the generosity of folks like Mrs. Ruth.
By Jesus’ standard, I claim the privilege to have known a woman far richer, far more influential on an eternal scale than anyone on the Forbes list. Recalling folks like her should inspire us all in our everyday giving, whether it’s to a church or to a charity.
As most of you know, my favorite charity outside of my church is Chispa Project, a charity my daughter, Sara, founded to establish libraries in Honduran elementary schools. (See www.chispaproject.org/nextchapter).
In Honduras, the school year runs from February to November, so they’re gearing up for the new year. Our support couldn’t come at a better time. Every donation helps bring essential resources, vibrant libraries, and inspiring books to thousands of kids.
This year, my wife and I will join a handful of other givers to match your donation up to $20,000! Your dollar goes twice as far to put books in the hands of young readers in Honduras.
Donate at www.chispaproject.org/nextchapter or send check for “Chispa Project” to Norris Burkes 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602. Email me or Sara with any questions to comment@thechaplain.net and Sara@chispaproject.org.
