The Crumb Jar: Give the Crumbs of Your Money, Time, and Accumulations

By Curtis Hinshaw

Curtis Hinshaw argues that we must make a concerted effort to give to the poor, though not for the reasons you may think.

As a lifelong conservative himself, he expects some conservatives may think he’s selling out—or even that he’s a closet liberal trying to pilfer everyone out of money by selling a book. There could be nothing further from the truth.

The reality is he’s concluded that we need to do more for the least of these. The Bible tells us so and is downright serious about it.

The Bible doesn’t say it’s the government’s job to give to the poor and needy—it says it’s our job. Since government programs help our less privileged quite a bit, it makes our job easier because there aren’t as many desperately poor, like Lazarus, or at least they aren’t as obvious as Lazarus with all his sores laying at the gate. However, we must help them.

The rich man in this book is more like you than you’d like to believe. He, like many of us, thinks he can ignore the poor without consequence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664265202

Curtis Hinshaw

Curtis Hinshaw describes himself as “a crusty middle-aged conservative curmudgeon who now believes it’s okay to give to the poor.” Imagine that. It’s been a long road to the obvious, but we all have to grow up sometime.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-6518-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-6519-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-6520-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022907863

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/27/2022

To Kathy H.

It was your idea.

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord….

Proverbs 19:17 (NIV)

EDITORIAL NOTE

Thank you to my lifelong friend Bart Vance and fellow self-published author Sandra Hildebrand, and to the good people at Westbow Press for editing this book. Without them, it would probably be a train wreck.

I purposely wrote in a less formal style. There will be dangling participles and/or modifiers, sentence fragments, subject-verb disagreement, frequent usage of the passive, contractions, bad punctuation, repetition, etc. To me, formal writing is a way for the author to show his or her intelligence. It is difficult to read. I’ve tried to make this book easy to read, easy to understand, and difficult to put down. Hopefully it’s at least easy to understand, being little more than personal inspiration from the plain words of the biblical text. It is not intended to be a formal dissertation, though I’m pretty sure on certain points I’m preachy.

There are some feeble attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor, so don’t be surprised if your subconscious brain goes booooooooooo. I’ll be here all week.

Also, there are other subtle themes running through this book. See if you can recognize them.

Let’s go.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1     It Is Better to Give than to Receive (Acts 20:35 KJV)

Chapter 2     Sometimes It’s Not How Much You Give

Chapter 3     The Passage

Chapter 4     Why This Book?

Chapter 5     Get the Paddles! … Clear!!

Chapter 6     I Haven’t Forgotten

Chapter 7     If I Were a Rich Man

Chapter 8     Lazarus, Come Forth!

Chapter 9     C’mon Man! Do We Have to Help Them All?

Chapter 10   Excuses, Excuses

Chapter 11   Whatever

Chapter 12   Objection! Overruled! (Gavel Slams)

Chapter 13   But You Said …

Chapter 14   Point of Know Return

INTRODUCTION

Who Are You? (And a few more opening thoughts)

Just an overweight middle-ager with a newfound conviction.

My nationality is Southern Baptist. After birth, the first place my mother took me was the First Baptist Church. I later became a U.S. citizen.

Mom wore a bunch of different church hats: pastor’s secretary, church secretary, church hostess, music minister’s secretary, children’s choir director, Sunday school teacher, Girls in Action leader, occasional church pianist, and, when not playing the piano, choir member. Dad was a small-business owner, Sunday school teacher, and a deacon. They made sure we attended Sunday school every Sunday morn, Training Union on Sunday nights, choirs from childhood to adulthood, and the Wednesday night hour of power, where I was a proud Royal Ambassador. My sisters were GAs. You get the picture. To say the least, we were raised in the church.

To Mom and Dad, salut!

Considering my Southern Baptist heritage, it should come as no surprise I’m a Baylor grad. Majored in history and had a concentration in English, which was some silly way Baylor did it back then instead of awarding a minor.

My true major was watching the likes of Walter Abercrombie, Mike Singletary, Thomas Everett, Ron Francis, Cody Carlson, and many others play on the gridiron. Saw some really good football.

Saw some good basketball, too. My best sports memory was arriving early to a basketball game to get a seat right below the basket. I watched the Houston Cougars up close. You might remember them as Phi Slama Jama. Watched the game within about twelve feet of the court. Saw Clyde Drexler make a four-corner slam. Saw Akeem do the dream shake. Baylor lost that game but did win the 2021 National Championship (the most important thing for you to know, ever).

In college I saw Amy Grant in concert twice, which automatically qualified me for heaven. I also saw Petra, Truth, Keith Green, and even Stryper. To hell with the devil. I was impeccably qualified for heaven based on this resume but attended Baylor Law School after graduation. By becoming a lawyer, I’ve been told I forfeited my stairway to heaven.

I married a stunning California girl in 1987, a love story I would relive in a heartbeat. Along the way, I’ve written some very mediocre poetry for her. She said it was sweet. Hmmph. We have two kids and, just recently, the most beautiful granddaughter on the face of the planet. Just ask.

Lisa and I weathered life’s storms together rather well, but we also have some unnecessary scars. Oh, to be as wise back then as we are now. Lisa is still stunning. I don’t need bifocals to see that. Been California dreamin’ for thirty-five years now. She managed to marry a hick from southwest Arkansas. Go figure.

My mother passed away in 2002 at the age of seventy from an allergic reaction to a medication. I realized then life was too short, so I quit practicing law, which I disliked, and became a financial professional, which I love.

I have no other real qualifications in anything. I just know as I age, I become less impressed with who I want to think I am and more impressed by how much I’m really not that guy. I need a whole lot more work.

Thankfully I accepted Christ back in the seventh grade. Saved me from a bunch of grief. But my spiritual house was built with black and white bricks and unflinching, reinforced mortar. No room for sunshine. Seldom right, never in doubt.

The older I’ve gotten, the more Christ chisels away at my walls. A little weathering makes the bricks a little less stark, a little more gray. A crack or two for a little sun. A new revelation every now and then, and hence, this book.

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Facebook helps me stay in touch with family and friends. Through it, I’ve been exposed to excellent music and comedy videos. One of the comedic bits that recently popped up on my feed was by Mark Lowry about being a recovering fundamentalist. Absolutely hysterical. It was a better description of my life than I could offer. Go watch it on YouTube, please.

For me, a step in the maturing process included getting away from a Southern Baptist church and joining an evangelical church. I didn’t disagree with Southern Baptist theology but grew away from the form. I deeply appreciate the Sunday morning praise and worship at the evangelical church.

With this caricature, you see a little about who I am. A crusty middle-aged conservative curmudgeon who now believes it’s OK to give to the poor. Imagine that. It’s been a long road to the obvious, but we all have to grow up sometime. After all, I’m only fifty-nine.

Some may close the book now because I’m conservative. Some conservatives may think I’m selling out because I now espouse giving more to the poor. I realize this is a tough one. Some of you may opine I am some sort of closet snot-slinging liberal just trying to sell a book.

None of the above. I’ve just come to the conclusion we need to do more for the least of these. The Bible tells me so. Says a lot about it. Gets just downright serious about it.

I’m not a graduate of any theological cemetery, and have no training in hermeneutics, exegesis, semiotics, etymology, or other interpretive principles or methods. This book represents my thoughts from the plain words of the biblical text. I took French in high school, if it helps.

So after reading the scripture on Lazarus and the rich man, I legitimately wondered, from a Christian world view, if the rich man could be sent to hell solely for overlooking Lazarus? If so, how bad have I blown it? They would probably have to expand hell for all of my transgressions. Add all the things I didn’t think about or to which I was just oblivious, and my prospects look pretty dim.

The rich man in our story is probably a lot more like you and me than we want to believe. He, like a lot of us, thought he could ignore giving to the poor without consequence. We can’t. Hopefully this book will help illustrate the importance of giving to others above and beyond our tithe and beyond our gifts via local, state, and federal government programs.

The Bible doesn’t say it’s the government’s job to give to the poor and