Act of Giving or Life of Giving?

I had this interesting run in when I was at wal-mart last week. I met a guy in a motorized wheelchair that apparently wanted money. He gave me a lot of information, including getting my military supervisor to write me a letter of commendation. So I gave him the dollar that I had in my wallet. He then asked me if I had an ATM card so that he could get money, to which I promptly said that I did not have any more money to give. With that, he took off quickly. Should I have given him the dollar? I am not sure, but at least I can say that I gave him something if he really needed it. If not, its between him and God. Was I being stingy? Thats all I had in my pocket. I was not about to give a lot of money to someone that I was not sure about.

This made me think a lot about how we view giving. I do not want to get into a discussion about tithing and the Biblical view on that, because I find that the discussion comes up the most when the church is in a financial pinch. I think it is important to tithe because the church needs to be taken care of. If the roof leaks, who is going to pay for it? But are we as Christians willing to give outside of our tithes? At times I think that sometimes I look at giving as an event rather than a life style.

This is a very touchy subject that I am moving into, and I do not want to sound preachy and I do not want to condemn people. I am writing about it because it is something that I think about and have been working through, and I think it is worth discussing. This incident made me wonder about giving to someone on the side of the road, because some of those people may not use their money for food. It also makes me think about boundaries that we have on giving and at what point does someone have to be responsible for their own actions. Also, should money be the only thing we give?

On the money subject, I think about not only how do we share with people, but what about things such as tipping waitresses? Most of them only make 2 something and hour before tips are considered. It made me really think about ways I could bless them. Instead of leaving a tract without tip, I would rather give a decent amount and know that I did my best to help them through the day. They have hard days often, and they often times view Christians as cheap and needy... so I try my best to dispel that stereotype.

Speaking of words, what about the words that we use? Giving someone a compliment goes over a heck of a lot better than an insult or a sarcastic joke. We constantly give words to people, are the words that we are giving giving life, or are they giving death? This is why I have tried to take sarcasm out of my language, because usually it does not give life to people.

What about the way in which we give our time? I have found that churches often times look at ministry as events, rather than a life style. It is time to go to that ministry, or do this good thing. What about just living life, and when you are able to meet someone's need, that you do your best to meet that need?

So one thing that I would like to encourage you to do this week is to find a way that you can give to someone without asking anything in return. But always remember, that when someone expects you to give to them, you really have to be careful because giving is not something that should be taken for granted. And when you give, do not say, "Okay, I will go to this ministry today." but instead, ask God to show you who really needs to be blessed today... whether it is with your time, money, words, or talents.