Dan Louis, of The United Methodist Reporter, told about an experience he had one morning while listening to a radio talk show.

He said that the announcer informed the listeners that the tenth person to call in that morning would receive $1,000 in cash, the ordinary ploy used by many stations to build their listening audience. In a few moments, sure enough there was a winner. The announcer immediately "went live" and began interviewing the young woman on the phone. "What's your name? Do you realize you've just won $1,000? How does it feel?" and so forth. But then he asked a question that broke the whole thing open. He simply asked, "What are you going to do with the money?" Dan Louis said he was totally unprepared for the young woman's answer. This is how Louis describes it. "Without hesitation," he wrote, "she responded by saying, 'well, of course, the first $100 goes to the church.' His surprise at her answer was enough that he only vaguely remembered how she said the balance of the $1000 would be spent. He was impressed by the tithe commitment, but more than that, it was the self-confident, no-deliberation, no-reservations way in which she said 'of course the first $100 goes to the church' that really had the greatest impact upon him. There was no self- righteousness in her voice, just a simple matter-of-face tone as if to say, 'Isn't that what everyone would do?'" And then Louis concluded, "It was a natural thing for her to do. Any money that flowed through her life, a portion of it flowed right to the kingdom of God. No question about it at all." (Dr. Norman Neaves, "Have You Come to a Fork in the Road?", April 8, 1990.)

What had happened with that woman was that way back, long before this experience, she had come to terms with who she was and what were her deepest values. That is essential for us. Because at the forks of the roads of our life, we will be tempted to give attention to our physical needs and disregard the spiritual.