Writing Massive Checks

Imagine writing any check for any amount and knowing 100% that it’s going to cash every single time. Tell a child to think up the biggest number they can imagine, and then picture standing in the checkout line, seeing that number on the screen, and swiping your debit card, entering your pin, and knowing 100% that it’s going to go through because the funds are there.

It’s no surprise that there are people who emotionally fill us and people who emotionally drain us. Steven Covey talks about this in terms of relationship equity - that sometimes people make withdrawals and sometimes they make deposits into the relationship. He encourages you to make sure you have the relational equity with someone before making a withdrawal - that you’re not bankrupting those in your life.

Caroline and I were talking about grace this weekend and this topic came up. There are people you’ll interact with who will primarily make withdrawals - and not too many deposits. The obvious feeling around these people is to feel drained, spent, exhausted, and so on.

But here’s the thing: I’m a Christian, so I believe that I have been given grace by God and I’ve been asked to re-gift that grace to others. In a way, God gave me access to his checking account of grace and then told me to give as much away as I possibly could in my lifetime. When I write a check of grace to someone else, it always clears and it can’t make me feel drained because it’s not coming out of my account. If I feel drained, it’s because I’m trying to cover their withdrawal from the wrong account.

The next time someone slights you, cuts you off in traffic, insists on their way, doesn’t take your feelings into account, puts themselves first again and again, think about this. Imagine that action is them demanding grace - a lot of grace. Imagine taking out your checkbook, writing the entire sum they’ve asked for with no questions asked, and handing it to them, knowing that God has asked you to give away as much of this stuff as you possibly can in your lifetime, so this amount is fine.

Imagine that withdrawal is being taken out of oceans and oceans of grace that God has poured out for you, and that even if you tried every day of your life to giveaway as much grace as you could, his supply would still be brimming and overflowing off the edges of the world.

The withdrawal isn’t coming from your account. There is nothing to feel empty or drained about. He put you on his account and any check you write will clear. So give it freely and know that God has supplied far more than you will ever need - for you and for anyone you pass it on to.

Be an agent of grace, looking for any and every chance to write that check.