Left Hand...

             “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18) 

            “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4) 

            This goes back to what was said earlier about praying and motivation. In fact, looking back, I see that I forgot the first four verses in the chapter, which involves the same idea. If we pray, practice our righteousness, give, or fast to impress others with how spiritual we are, we can only be rewarded by their attention and shouldn’t be surprised when God doesn’t provide us with a reward. If we’re willing to work for five dollars an hour, why should someone for whom we aren’t working give us ten? Or a thousand?

            The second passage takes it even further. When we give, our left hand shouldn’t know what our right hand is doing. What? How? Dallas Willard’s teaching on this point (if I remember correctly) is that our giving to others should be so normal and natural to us that we don’t even notice it. We’re just doing what we do.

            I’m asking, what if a lot in the past couple of days, but what if we did the things we do so naturally that we didn’t really notice ourselves doing them?  I do something like this frequently. As I headed to work this summer – I regularly had to go back to verify that I’d locked the door. I remembered that I’d locked the door, but I lock the door every day. Was I remembering locking it today or yesterday? Or last week? How much of your trip to work or to the store today do you remember? Did you think about each movement you made? Are you really aware of each breath?

            If Dr. Willard is correct, it is as we make our righteousness so routine that our left hand can’t be bothered to pay attention to what  our right hand is doing; we’ll have made progress in the right direction.