… and He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For all these out of their abundance have put in their gifts for God. But she out of her poverty has put in all the living she had.”

— Luke 21:3-4

Psychologist Abraham Maslow claimed that those who demonstrate the greatest amount of self-love and have the highest self-esteem exercise dominance. In any relationship—a husband and a wife, two friends, or business partners—if one of them has a higher opinion of himself or herself than the other, the one with the highest amount of self-love will dominate. There will often be arrogance. There will be exploitive aspects involved. It does not necessarily follow that the dominant one will love the other.

Which one is able to help other people more? A man who spends all day long in a gym working out with weights, developing huge muscles, standing before the tanning machines, admiring his biceps, or a person who is poor and weak and frail and unmuscular?

I am not sure the answer is clear. It may be that a strong person is more capable of helping people. It may be that Arnold Schwarzenegger is more capable of helping people than Mother Teresa was. However, it does not at all follow logically that he has helped more people than she has. Many of the world’s greatest people have been people who have not been strong, muscular, and healthy at all, but they have sought to do for the Lord the best they could. The key is to serve others, including the widow and orphan, whenever we can.

Question to ponder:
Are you taking the opportunities you get to serve the Lord and others?