There are moments in your life which you look back on and recognize as turning points, when the direction of your life changes forever. At the time it may seem like nothing but when viewed with hindsight from some future perspective, it turns out to be a major event. I experienced such a moment in my life on the day when Jesus sat down with us in front of the temple treasury. I had been with him almost every day for three years, but I never really understood what he was trying to teach us until that day. Even then it would take me years before it began to show in my life, but it was on that day when I started to understand.

He started out by warning us about the scribes who were always trying to impress people with their importance. We had heard such warnings before, and we thought we understood. Indeed, we didn't want to be like the scribes anyway and we certainly didn't have to be convinced to steer clear of them. They always seemed to be looking down their noses at everyone, and on more than one occasion we had come under their direct wrath because of our association with Jesus. It was easy to think that we were better than they were. After all, we were with the most important man in all of Israel. If they couldn't see that, then they really were as blind as Jesus said they were.

But Jesus didn't stop with his warning about the scribes. He never seemed to stop with the challenge directed at someone else. If he had, then perhaps I could have continued on indefinitely in my smug, self-satisfied ignorance. But he didn't let us off the hook that easily. He had us sit down and watch as people came by to make their contributions to the treasury. As we were watching he pointed out an old widow who dropped in a paltry two copper coins. If he hadn't pointed her out we all would have missed her, because there seemed to be absolutely nothing at all remarkable about her or her actions. At least nothing we could see. But in Jesus' eyes she had done something quite remarkable indeed. I will never forget his words. "This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury." (Mark 12:43) Our faces must have spoken volumes about what we were thinking at that moment. Jesus was always saying things we didn't understand, but this just seemed outrageous and ridiculous. He couldn't possibly be talking about the same woman we had just seen dropping in two worthless coins. But he was. He went on, "For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." (Mark 12:44)

And that is when the light came on for me. I don't know why, but in that moment I realized how very much like the scribes I really was. I didn't parade around town in long robes and I didn't get to sit in important places in the synagogues, but I was just as guilty of doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons. When I was with Jesus I felt important, because I was with somebody important. When I prayed, I said all the right words at all the right times, because it was what I had been taught to do. When I gave alms to the poor (which wasn't very often since most of the time I was poor myself) I did it because it was expected. I was so quick to dismiss others as being less important or less worthy -- people like the scribes because they were so smug or people like the old woman because their contributions seemed so insignificant. But in that moment I suddenly realized I had lived my whole life on the basis of fear and self-interest -- doing what I needed to get by and get ahead. I came to understand that Jesus pointed out the widow not to teach us about giving, but to show us what it meant to live faithfully. She didn't give because she had to. She gave because she wanted to. She didn't give what she could afford. She gave everything she had. She wasn't concerned about planning and scheming. Instead she was living out her faith by trusting and risking. And I had been ready to dismiss her as unimportant!

What I began to learn on that day in front of the temple is that faith isn't about impressing other people and it isn't about playing it safe. In fact, it isn't really about doing at all. God doesn't call us to do the right things. God calls us to be faithful people. When that begins to happen then the doing part just seems to fall into place. I will always be grateful to the poor widow with the two copper coins. She opened my eyes to the true meaning of faith. I pray that someday I can learn to risk being that faithful.