Mamit

I have lost track of the number of sermons I have heard about the Lord giving back to us pressed down and shaken together. To be honest, it has turned into one of those scriptures that as I set in church I tend to roll my eyes because I know that we are gonna get another message about giving, that for the most part, turns into begging. You feel beat up at the end of church and don't really feel like giving to the new building fund or Sunday school wing. Some how the goodness of Jesus is taken out of the message and I am left feeling empty instead of full.

So, this Sunday when Pierre got up to preach and read pressed down and shaken together, my heart sank. I love Pierre and his family and didn't want him to go there. As he started down what I thought was going to the road of another message on giving he started to talk about his father growing rice and going to market and how the machants use a mamit (can) to measure out what they sell, like rice, beans and flour. This was good, I could understand how many people in Haiti are struggling with food prices and trying to get all they can for their money. He explained that if you are the one selling at market you will do what you can to keep as much as you can in your supply and that it was common to push up the bottom of the can so it would hold less, or keep your hand inside to take up space. And don't even consider asking them to press down the rice or flour so you get the most for your money because that would get you punched. Now he was talking a language I could understand.

Growing up in American I have had a hard time understanding some different scriptures because I don't always understand the culture or the time in which it was written. But, living in Haiti, or any other third world country, you really have a better understanding of a culture that seemed to be lost. Much of life here for most Haitians functions at very basic levels. You only have enough for one day. You work for what you can buy for only that day. You buy two eggs and bananas, not a dozen. You don't have electricity or money to buy things to store up when the average person lives on two dollars a day.

Now I was thinking what a great scripture! Jesus has so much to give us that he will fill the mamit full, running over, pressed down and shaken together. No arguing for a better price because I was white, I didn't have to push out the bottom of the can, I didn't have to recount my change. Why? Because He loves me and isn't out to take away from me or to hold it back for himself. He doesn't needed it, it is all His and He is giving it to us.