Fractional Living

What a difference there is in the seeing yourself as a pauper or as a millionaire! The pauper feels he has been cheated, left out; the millionaire flourishes in abundance, has more than he can use.

For the Christian, the difference lies not chiefly in dollars but in mental and spiritual health. Some who have access to great wealth, insist on fractional living. Some laymen in the Corinthian Church preferred Peter's preaching and therefore rejected all other preachers. Paul rebuked them for their prejudices and narrow appreciations "all the apostles are yours, Peter, Paul, Apollos, and your are richer because you have them all."

What a difference there is between the earthworm and the bird! The worm eats his way through a small piece of earth--that's all he knows. But all the earth belongs to the bird. Actually, the bird doesn't own any more than the earthworm, but from his height he claims it all. The bird who completes a 25,000 mile migration possesses the earth from pole to pole. All is his.

Fractional living recoils from life. The small attitude impressions the soul. In the Castleton Gardens of Jamaica I saw the sensitive plant. Touch its leaves and they instantly droop. The plant seems to say, "Anything that gets near enough to touch me threatens my existence." (In a few hours, though, the plant quits "pouting" and perks up again.) This "shrinking" attitude toward life invites defeat. Had no the guide known the peculiar sensitivity of the plant, I would not have touched it.

Fractional living is immobile. Such a life dares not venture. One who claims only one country as his mission field would never have told the Romans as Paul did, that he wanted to visit them and go on to Spain. Paul never reached Spain but Spain belonged to him; he claimed Spain for Christ.

"All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas...all are yours"--(I Cor. 3:22)


--George E. Failing