Hi, My Name Is Cain

This morning on the way to Church I begun to mentally do the math as to how much to put in the offering bag. I’m not going to tell you how much I came up with, that would be awkward. A bit of a history behind that is that I tend to divide the amount of money I will put into the offering each month by the number of Sundays then put in the required amount each Sunday, I just feel better that way. So as I did the math it dawned on me that doing that was easy, the idea of me giving my tithes and offerings was easy and this really bothered. This here is me explaining why

I'm not an addict but there is some relevance

So I tend to think of myself as a pretty simple guy. I’m not big on new clothes, new gadgets or even going out much, I make two or three calls a week and I barely text, my sister is not too big a fan of that last one. The main things I spend my money on are two things; school and coca cola. I AM NOT ADDICTED TO COKE! I just like it a lot. This means I occasionally have a little money on the side which I might use every couple months to entertain me. The thing is because I don’t buy much the idea of me putting money into the offering is not sacrifice and that is where I draw my comparison with Cain. But allow me to elaborate more

You see Cain was the first born son of the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve. He was a farmer by trade, one would imagine him toting Tomatoes and onions to his mother at the end of the working day so she could whip up something nice for them. I also Imagine Cain was pretty good at his Job, there is nothing to support that but I just don’t buy into the idea that Cain was this lazy guy who brought poor veggies to God as his offering, No. I also do not think that God was displeased with Cain because he brought veggies instead of a lamb like his brother did. God expects us to give him the best of what we have because he gave us all we have. It’s only right to do so.

Ever the bad guy in the pictures, all because you cant burn veggies right??

I think Cain’s problem lay in his poor priorities. In my minds eye, that is my imagination, I figure Cain saved his best food for his meal and brought his second best produce to God. I also don’t think he gave God the scraps, that has to be mentioned. I think his priorities where wrong, maybe he was even naïve enough to think God would not know or care that he gave him what was of secondary importance to him

Bringing it back to me, I have been content with giving God my money every couple Sundays and thinking that is fine when in actual fact I have been guilty of the sin of Cain. My money is the secondary thing of importance in my life, to some it might be the first but I know for a fact that to me it is the second most important thing. The most important thing to me is my time. I might squander it here and there but that is the one thing that I have held dear to me and kept in an isolated chamber, giving God some but not his due share. I have been going to God and giving him my secondary produce and whether it be knowingly or unknowingly it is still not giving God what he deserves.

Period

I am Cain in that I give God what is of secondary importance to me and not what rightly belongs to him of what is of primary importance. I am Cain because I think what I am giving is fine and do not think of looking any further into it to find out if what I am doing is right or wrong. I am Cain because I am also prone to jealousy when a brother at the next table is growing in faith and I seem stagnant, not caring to look at what he is doing right and I’m doing wrong but just judging and hating. I am Cain because when push comes to shove it is easier to turn my back on God an grumble than fall on my knees and repent

I am Cain but I am not Cain. I am not Cain because I still have the chance to turn this around. I am not Cain because I have seen the error of my ways and though I may fall time and time again I can begin to work on this with God’s grace. And more importantly I am not Cain because there is hope for me yet, alas there is hope for me yet.

Hello my name is Cain but my name is also Mwansa