When Giving Goes Against the Norm, When It Looks Foolish

I have wrestled with whether I should write about generosity and money. Part of the reason it has been so hard for me to get up the courage is because my husband and I have been in a season of support raising for our ministry. I was afraid of what people might think if I would share my thoughts. Maybe they would think that I just wanted money for myself and my ministry. Maybe they would think I was trying to manipulate people into giving to us. Now I see how selfish those thoughts were. As if the entire world revolves around us and what we are doing. God is bigger than the things we say, and he can work through the foolish things we say, as well as the wise things.

Another part of me that didn’t want to write it, is that it is so against what most people think of when it comes to generosity. A lot of people adhere to the 10% tithe, but few go above and beyond that and give everything they have to Jesus in order to follow Jesus. More importantly, I think few, including myself, understand completely that it is the heart that matters not the amount. A third reason I was scared of writing about this is I felt that maybe I wasn’t wise enough on this subject. I’m sure there are people who know more about this subject and who have studied it more than me and are better Bible scholars (or they are actually Bible Scholars). That is true. There are people better qualified to talk about this. The mistake I made for months is that with all of these reasons I let my anxiety rule ahead of the Holy Spirit’s leading to write about this. Even now I can feel myself worrying about what people will think when they read this.

The truth is, I have learned a lot while support raising and it wasn’t all easy and I wasn't always graceful. We started the process saying that we wouldn’t judge people for what they did or did not give. Although it is something good to strive for, I think we forgot that we are only human when we said that. I have seen people who give without abandon, even though I think that they maybe cannot afford it. I have seen people give nothing, even when I think they can afford to give more. Honestly, I have made a lot of assumptions about people that I realize are hypocritical. I had a plank in my own eye, while I was judging others. First of all, I would like to make an apology for those thoughts. I realize now that I have not been living in complete abandon to God with regards to my pride. Sure, we are selling our house, we are going to sell our car, we sold or gave away almost all of our stuff, but my heart was holding on to things still, holding on to pride about this issue, and I was not following God with complete abandon.

One thing that caused the wheels to turn about this matter for me was a discussion my husband and I had this morning. We were talking about generosity and giving and the different ways that missionaries raise support. Without going into too much detail about our discussion, we ended up looking up some statistics about giving to missions and the unreached (people who have never heard the Good News of Jesus Christ and do not have the opportunity). Here are a few of the most eye-opening ones we found:

• WHAT CHRISTIANS EARN: 

Annual Income of all Church Members: $42 trillion.

(Annual income of Evangelical Christians is approximately $7 trillion.)

• WHAT PEOPLE GIVE:

Given to any Christian causes: $700 billion.

Given to Missions: $45 billion (only about 6.4% of the money given to Christian causes of any kind)

• HOW CHRISTIAN GIVING IS USED:

Pastoral ministries of local churches (mostly in Christian nations):  $677 billion (96.8%)

"Home Missions" in same Christian nations:  $20.3 billion (2.9%)

Going to Unevangelized Non-Christian world: $2.1 billion (.3%) *This is different than "Unreached"

Money that goes toward Unreached Peoples: *Estimated $450 million

         *In 2001 only 1% of giving to "Missions" went to unreached - if that trend holds true today it would be $450 million.

The $450 million going toward Unreached People Group's is only .001% of the $42 trillion Income of Christians.  For every $100,000 that Christians make, they give $1 to the unreached.

(http://www.thetravelingteam.org/stats/)

I wanted to make this list more concise, but I feel like the statistics speak too loudly to do that.

Why is the church giving so little?

I am not sure where these numbers came from, but even if they are only somewhere in the ballpark of accuracy, they are extremely convicting to me. One of the quotes in the article explained it very well: “Until recently, Americans gave less money to reach the unreached than they spent buying Halloween costumes...for their pets.”

Something is wrong with how much Christian’s give.

The main passage that has been very convicting for me the last few weeks is below. It is so counter-cultural. Safety and security in finances is the culture. People think it is foolish to sell everything and give it to the poor. But Jesus said this type of devotion was needed to follow him.

And someone came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."  Then he said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. (Matthew 19:16-22)

I once told a group of people that I thought it was right to “give until it hurts.” The response I got back was a lot of silence and some uncomfortable looks. I don’t know what they were thinking in that moment. But the response caused me to think about what I said more. Do I truly believe that it is wise to give until it hurts? The answer I came to was no. It is not wise. At least, it is not wise if you are thinking from a perspective that adheres to the culture we live in. In fact, it looks foolish to give up all my earthly possessions. To put the poor and the Good News of Jesus Christ before yourself and your family looks foolish. It may seem foolish to give up all I have. But I was never promised that following Jesus would look wise to those around me.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

This foolishness is the foolishness that goes way beyond the 10% tithe. Jesus blessed a woman because she gave out of her poverty, while those around her only gave out of their surplus.

And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44)

I have wrestled with this: Is there any balance between security in finances and giving up everything for Jesus? Should we really give everything we have to follow Him? What about my family? Isn't it my duty to make sure they have food to eat? Jesus seems very clear to me on this matter, he takes care of even the sparrows, so he will not let my family starve if I give up everything for Him. It is not my duty and has never been my duty to provide the food that we eat. It has always been God taking care of us. I have never been able to control a steady income in my family. We could have been fired from our job(s). I wouldn’t have had control over that. Yes, the basic duty for my husband and I is to care for our family and work at our jobs, to get the food for our family once God provides, but ultimately He is the provider. So why not give up everything I have to follow him? If I truly trust Him, that He will take care of me and my family, then I can truly trust that He will provide.

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? (Matthew 6:26)

This looks like complete foolish abandon to me. Abandon that is willing to give up everything in order to follow Christ. This is abandon that starts with a change of heart and is unafraid of the future that may involve a lack of finances. It is foolish to us, but this is what God calls us to do and to Him it is wisdom.

One of the last driving points that I would like to get across here is that we are just stewards. All of our money, our possessions, all of it, is already God’s. It is from Him that we have received abundance, and if it all is His anyway, then why not give back to God? Like the poor widow, why not give back to God out of our times of poverty as well as our times of abundance and still trust that he will provide?

And so I ask myself, and anyone reading this, who are you like? Be honest with yourself. Are you more like the rich young ruler, who went away sad when Jesus told him He must sell everything to follow Christ? Or are you the poor widow who gave all she had in complete devotion to God, despite any worries that she had about putting food on her table? Are you willing to give up everything to follow Jesus? Are you willing to give until it hurts?

We are rich. I can guarantee, that if you are reading this post and you have had a meal today or are planning to have a meal or have the means to have a meal and you are going to sleep under a roof tonight, you are a lot richer than most people in the majority world. So today, I leave you with this passage which Paul wrote to Timothy and I ask you to consider how this principle applies to your life.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)