He was thankful for what he had

When Christian theologian and Methodism founder John Wesley was a college student at Oxford a custodian knocked on his door one cold night as he was studying. John answered and they talked briefly. As the custodian was leaving John noticed that the man had on a thin jacket and remarked, “You ought to put on a heavier coat.” The custodian responded, “This is the only coat that I have and I thank God for this coat.” When Wesley realized that the man did not have enough money to buy warm clothes he asked if he had money to buy food. The custodian’s reply was essentially the same, “I have had nothing to eat today but I have had water to drink and I thank God for the water.”

Wesley was beginning to get uncomfortable with the situation and said something about it being time for the man to get home and crawl into a warm bed. The custodian’s reply was, “I have no bed but I thank God that I have a dry floor to sleep on tonight.” John was deeply moved by the man’s deep faith in God and asked, “You thank God when you have nothing to wear, nothing to eat and no warm bed upon which to sleep. What else do you thank God for?” The custodian replied, “I thank God that He has given me the gift of life, a heart with which to love Him and a deep desire to serve Him. What more could a man ever want?” John Wesley was so moved by the custodian’s words that he wrote in his journal that night, “I shall never forget that man. He convinced me that there is something in religion to which I am a stranger.”

The encounter with the custodian led John Wesley to develop a strong opinion about money. Later he wrote, “Make all you can, save all you can and give all you can.” And later he did just that. Wesley gave almost everything he owned away. Upon his death there was hardly any estate left.

Wesley had lived the last few years of his life very modestly so that he could give everything to the building of new churches, to the purchase of religious books for classes to use and to support widows, orphans and prisoners. If we were to live by the slogan, “Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can,” how would our lifestyle change? ~SAY A PRAYER~

Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother’s house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When little Johnny received his plate he started eating right away. “Johnny, please wait until we say our prayer,” his mother said. “I do not need to,” Johnny replied. “Of course you do,” his mother insisted, “We always say a prayer before eating at our house.” “That is at our house,” Johnny explained, “but this is grandmother’s house and she knows how to cook.”