Senior Coffees and Redeeming the Edges

My friend Jacob laughs at me when I get charged the senior coffee price at McDonald's.  It doesn't happen often -- I am, after all, a very young-looking 46 if I do say so myself.  A lady who I had not seen in some years looked at me yesterday and said, "You're in your 30's, right?"  But I digress.  But not before adding: If you think I look young, you should see my wife!  (That's just good home training right there...)

Back to the senior coffees.  I have been charged the senior coffee price four or five times, including today.  The cashier told me she knew I wasn't "gettin' on up there"; she just wanted to save me some money.  Typically, my coffee in $1.10, but the senior coffee price is only $.76.  I'll take the savings, and I appreciate her looking out for me; however, I really don't mind breaking the other dollar.  

Even if I buy several items throughout the day, I never spend the change.  At the end of the day, my pocket full of change will land in the peanut jar where the rest of my change resides. I look at my change as the "edges" of my income.  Let me explain through this passage in Leviticus, which speaks "for the voiceless":

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident;  I am Yahweh your God."  

(Leviticus 19:9-10, HCSB)

The Lord made provision for the voiceless, those who had fewer rights under the law and were easily taken advantage of, through this command in Leviticus 19.  The poor and the foreigner were often included with the widow and the orphan in Bible lists of the disenfranchised.  I believe this is a principle that honors the Lord even today.  It allows us to redeem the edges of our fields.

Now, I don't have any fields or vineyards (other than a few raised garden beds and fruit trees and vines), but I do have an income.  I see my change and some of my one-dollar bills as my edges, so I set them aside.  That was the motivation behind our small groups' Change It Now offering that I wrote about here.  That money is collected as an act of worship each week in our CHC small groups until the group moves it toward some redemptive cause of their choosing.  I use my change as my personal Change It Now.  It doesn't add up to much, but once or twice a year, I am able to redeem my coins to help with a project, sponsor a child at Christmas, help someone with a mission trip, or something similar.  And I never miss the coins and dollars.  

What are you doing with the edges of your income?  The edges of your time?  The edges of your skills and experiences?  Consider how you could set aside some of your edges for the poor, the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan -- the voiceless.  I encourage you to redeem the edges of your fields.  

That's 90 cents on a regular coffee and 24 cents on a senior coffee.  Hmmmm . . . I think I'll add a dollar to my peanut jar today.

Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al