It's Good to Grapple

Hi Everbody! I really enjoyed getting home & reading all the blogs. It's like little presents of information just waiting to be unwrapped - funny how addicting information (emails, blogs, etc.) can be!
We had a really good church meeting at our house last night. Ronnie did a great job at explaining all of the building changes and answering questions - tough job, he did it well! It's been so interesting to watch others "grapple" (my new favorite word) and grapple ourselves over how much to give, why we're giving, and just exactly who we are giving to. Bottom line is I'm glad we have leadership that is not afraid to ask us to give. Grappling forces me to really seek God. At first, it's just my human nature to ask, "what for? says who? how much? how much are they giving?" We've listened to others grapple with the same questions. Then comes the great discovery...you can't bluff God. There are no pretenses with Him, no false humilty, no hiding. It's just me & Him and my heart and my checkbook - nobody else. It's not my job to figure out how it's spent or what for (thank goodness and thank you ministers & staff!). I'm simply giving it to God and I'm so glad somebody asked me to. There's great peace & joy in that thought.
Alan, we did hear you did a great job sharing your heart on Sunday. Thanks for being vulnerable on a sensitive subject like giving - why is that?
Grappling is good - forces me to "wrestle" with God. Is anybody out there grappling?
I do, however, grapple with surface things like sweats or blue jeans, hair up or down, Tivo or...Tivo.