Luke 21:1-4
And he looked up and saw the rich casting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow casting two thin coins there. He said, “Truly, I tell you that this poor widow cast in more than all of them. For all of them cast in gifts from their abundance but she out of her deficiency, has placed in all that she had for life.”

We have been condition to value the virtue of acting out of our strength and/or giving out of our abundance. We shy away from those areas in life from which we are deficient. We have also been socialized to believe that this text is about money. Jesus’ point is that it isn’t about the money.

I recently heard a prayer in which the young women said, “Lord, bless those people who are so poor that they only have money.”

Maybe God doesn’t want us to give simply out of our strength and abundance.

This text suggests that God is regards more highly the moments when we act ‘in spite of’ not ‘because of’. Too often when we act ‘because of’ we have the luxury of staying in our comfort zone. We get puffed up as if we just did God a favor. However, when we act in spite of ourselves and our lack, we are more likely to acknowledge God.