Three weeks ago I was sitting in church listening to the message. The sermon focused on how God can take a little  and make a lot out of it, if we are willing to do what is asked of us. This related directly to the widow and the oil and how because she had the faith to do what was asked of her (even though logically it didn’t make sense) the little bit of oil she had was able to fill every jar she (and her sons) collected. Well, at the end of the service Pastor John takes the stage and is telling us about the outreach projects the church is doing, and the need to fund these project. It’s being called the “On the road” campaign. “So here’s what we’ve decided to do.” he says from the stage, “We are giving each one of you a jar with a $5 bill in it.” The entire lesson had been about knowing (and believing) that God can do a lot with a little, and he told us to take that $5 bill, think about it, pray about it, and have the faith to follow what is asked of you. Then, at the end of March we will see what God has done with the little we offered.

Immediately, my mind went to the story of the talents, and how the different servants took different actions, and how that made the difference when they were asked to return what they had been given. It wasn’t about how much was earned, but about taking the action to do something. I decided I wouldn’t be that servant that buried the talent, and returned only what had been given to him for fear of losing it.

So I thought about it, prayed about it, and asked God what I should do. Then I said, “You’re kidding, right?” and I sat the jar on the living room table. Well, it’s now been three weeks, and He’s wasn’t joking. Every time I looked at that jar, with the image of “Honest Abe” looking back at me, I knew what He was asking me to do, and each time I came up with an excuse. “I don’t have time”, “I’m horrible with commitment”, I don’t know how”, “What if it doesn’t work”, and a litany of other excuses. Then today the sermon was about feeding the 5000, and again how God doesn’t have limits, and we just have to believe and be willing to follow.

That was it. In fact, the name of the site came to me during the sermon today. I got home and immediately started to doubt myself. I looked at that $5 bill…and opened up the laptop. I went out and went through the steps to set up this blog, got to the payment screen…..and hesitated. After a few minutes of silent deliberating and chastising, I hit the purchase button. Every aspect of setting this up, down to writing this post has been a challenge. Not that I don’t enjoy writing, it’s my favorite thing to do, but putting myself out there…doing this….scares me to death. In fact, I expect pushing the publish button on this post will skyrocket my blood pressure.

Now, here I am, at the last paragraph of what is going to be the first of many posts. My pledge is to write for one-hour each day. Now, you may ask how a blog is going to make a return on that $5 the church asked me to use. That is the part that has my hands shaking, and my stomach doing somersaults. I am asking you to invest in my writing. I’ve set up an email, requests@fivedollarsoffaith.com. You email me what you would like me to write about, general subject, type of character, story-lines, whatever….and I will write it. All, I ask is for a donation (whatever you want to give) to the PayPal account that I will respond with when you email me. Everything I earn from this blog (regardless of the original end of March challenge) will go to the church. The next step is up to you. I hope to hear from you soon.