Give Well

What's behind our giving? Of time. Of money. Of things. Of whatever. There's a few good motives and a lot of bad ones.

Do we give because God wants us to give, but do it grudgingly? "Bah, they're asking for money again!" Would we rather spend the money on new toy for ourselves? Would we rather spend the time hanging out with friends, watching television, or playing sports? If that's your motive for giving something, keep it. God doesn't want it.

Do we give because we feel a sense of duty? "Well we're Christians so we better give; its the thing to do." Maybe we're not reluctant about it, but we're not fired up about it either. It's just another check box to tick off on our list of things to do to look like we're good little Christians keeping our i's dotted and t's crossed. If that's your motive for giving something, keep it. God doesn't want it.

Do we give because we feel guilty? "We have so much and they have so little. That's not cool. Let's give them something so we don't feel as bad." This one is probably most common in rich western cultures. We recognize there is an imbalance in the world and that we didn't end up with the short end of the stick. We have some recognition of where all that we have comes from and don't feel entitled, but we still squander it and know it. Giving is a way to suppress that feeling we don't like. If that's your motive for giving something, keep it. God doesn't want it.

Do we give because we don't want something bad to happen to us? "If I do this for God, then God will be nice to me." If we do this, what god do we think we worship? Some pantheistic God-is-everything nonsense? Some other false god in a false system that demands we "earn" salvation through good works? Do we actually think we can bribe God? If that's your motive for giving something, keep it. God doesn't want it.

Or do we have a real reason for giving? How about giving generously because God first gave to us so generously -- showing love because he first loved us? How about giving because we are so thankful that he paid a debt for us that we could never pay ourselves? When we give for these reasons, we give well.

I have given both out of proper motive (as far as I can tell anyway!) and wrong motive, and I can say with certainty that there is no reward, eternal or temporal, for any work done from a heart that isn't in the right place.

Give often, give much, and, most importantly, give well.

Grace and Peace

The Giving Jar

Or The Good Stewardship Jar.

Or The Quit Wasting Money On Stupid Crap Spoiled Children Of God Jar.

Whatever you want to call it, here's my idea:

Get a big freaking jar. Pray that you resist temptations to throw money away by buying junk on a whim, as we have been so trained to do in our overindulgent culture that is all about comfort and security. Take that money, in cash, and attach a note to it that indicates the date and the crap you didn't buy. Continue this until you're dead or the Lord returns.

At the end of every year, give the money away and get blessed for having helped someone instead of spending on junk you obviously didn't need anyway.

Now, please, don't for a minute let me sound like I'm on my high horse coming down on "everyone else". In my B.C. days I wasted a ton of money on all kinds of selfish whims, and I've done my fair share of that after coming to Christ as well. I think I'll try this jar thing in my home and see how it works. Hopefully well! :-)

Grace and Peace

Generosity Versus Sacrifice

I never really thought about the difference between these two things until tonight. My youngest daughter gave up watching the movie she wanted to watch tonight so that her sister could watch the movie she wanted to watch (and the one I wanted to watch as well). She won the game of chance that decided which movie to watch and had every right to watch it, but she still gave it up -- in spite of (or maybe because of) her sister's hissy fit at losing.

I thought later that "She sacrificed something for her sister. She rocks." The I thought maybe I was using the wrong word in my head. She was being nice. She gave something up. But its not like she gave up her favorite toy. What IS the difference between sacrificing for someone and being generous?

I think these two terms are very related. I don't think there's a hard line between them either. Let's look at examples from either end of the spectrum though:

Say someone gives $50,000 to fund a scholarship so someone can go to college. If that person was a millionaire, I don't think that was much of a sacrifice, though it was a generous thing to do. If that person was the grocery bagger at the local store and that money was for their own college tuition, it was a pretty big sacrifice on their part -- I think it goes well beyond whatever the traditional bounds of generosity are.

What was the criteria for sacrifices in Old Testament times? Quite often it was the first and best of things, was it not? God didn't want to be given the sickly runt animal that was going to die in two days anyway, did He? No! You didn't give God one of those! You gave him the favorite, best, most perfect one you had!

I think that's where the line gets crossed -- its when you REALLY give something up and put someone else (another person, God, etc) first. The millionaire giving up a small percentage of his wealth was generous, but it wasn't very hard for him to do. The grocery bagger gave up EVERYTHING he had for someone else.

Consider at the same time the woman who gave the two coins -- the Pharisees put in a lot more in absolute terms, but she put in the greatest percentage. She gave ALL that she had and trusted in God whild the Pharisees gave out of their wealth. Which was more difficult to do? Which was the real sacrifice? This one's a no-brainer.

That's my random thought for the day anyway.