Butterfly Effect – part 2

Most ministries like ours gear up for the giving season in the last quarter of the year. This is when people are very likely to give to charitable organizations either because the holidays stir them to think of others, or because they want to finalize their tax deductions for the year. As I mentioned in the last post, I’m a little worried about this year’s giving season due to the less-than-stellar (downright crappy, really) economy.

Jeannine Aversa, a writer for the Associated Press writes, “Economists are worried that consumers, the main support for the economy, may cut back on their visits to the malls in coming months as they struggle with the housing slowdown, tighter credit and now record-high oil prices” (source).

If people are spending less at the malls, I think it’s guaranteed that they will send fewer dollars to charity.

While a lot of us are going to be tightening our belts at the department stores this year, we’ve got to remember, as HeatherN3Boys commented, that some people, “don’t have belts to tighten.”

I often think about the idea of giving sacrificially. When I took the job with God’s Kids and started asking people for money, my wife and I had to take a good look at what we did with our money. We started being much more deliberate with our tithing, and then giving to our selected ministries on top of that. And I think we now lean if not toward automatically saying yes to new worthy solicitations, than at least less toward automatically saying no. I’m dancing a fine hypocritical line here; we’re not the world’s perfect stewards by any stretch.

But then I think, are we really giving something up when we give – especially something we really want? Are we giving to others to the point of sacrificing something that we wanted for ourselves? That’s what giving sacrificially means, right? Is there a point to giving if you don’t feel it a little bit?

For those of you who’ve researched stewardship in the bible, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on what the text tells us.

Anyway, for those of you who have ministries that you support regularly, HeatherN3Boys is right, keep giving. Give even if it hurts a little, because the people that you’re helping through those ministries are hurting every day.

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