Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts

Thursday, 18 February 2016

Money, money, money!

The greatest thing about #40acts to me is that it has caused me to think very intentionally about how generous I am. As a husband, father, son, brother, leader, pastor and so on. This journey of three years lasts beyond Lent. It has stopped some of my bad spending habits and started new ones.

As I am prompted to think about how I spend my money by the folks at Stewardship I am also being nudged by the Ignatian Reflection for today that Jesus is everything I will ever need.

All the rest is just stuff.

The prompting is so strong for me that when I turn on my banking app I have set is so the welcome message says 'be generous'!

Initially I thought this was principally about money but gradually I rediscover (for I think I have known this before) that generosity is about being available, open, accepting, giving.

Do I support numerous charities as a result of this? Not on a regular basis but when possible I like to Sipport Open Doors (persecuted Christians), Bible Society and Habitat for Humanity as well as my own church at The Salvation Army in Cumbernauld.

Do I ever feel I am being generous enough? Honestly, no, but I also know that I am on the way to being more generous with my money, which for some of the causes that resonate with me makes a difference of a few pounds.

And on the way I have healthier spending habits and am more available to others.

Be generous because you already have all you need.

Monday, 8 December 2014

The Gift of Giving

My friends at Stewardship who run the #adventwonder programme threw me a bit of a curve ball this morning.

Their message today is about angels and how they were used to give the message of the birth of John the Baptist and then Jesus, how they spoke to the shepherds, how they could not help but reflect the glory of God such was the wonder of this message. Then they sucker punch me by turning this on it's head and challenging me about giving. Nice move - didn't see that coming! And it did challenge me significantly.

You see in my ministry knew of the things I have to do is challenge people about their giving - never comfortable but very necessary. The challenge is one that I take to myself, but when you hear it coming from elsewhere it has added power.

I'm not thinking here of my gift giving at this time of year - I try to be generous and thoughtful (especially to my wife who has a birthday four days after Christmas: always difficult to make it special). No, this giving is about my regular contribution to my church and other important worthy causes, generally charities.

I try to work towards giving a tithe (10%) but often miss the mark.
I try to support charities that are underfunded but often misjudge.
I try to support young people who go on mission trips but often they've been and gone before I know it.
I try to give cheerfully but, honestly, sometimes I do so begrudgingly.

And that last one is the key - the attitude of giving is as important as the amount. In real terms there are some occasions that to give more financially would put my family at risk (The Lord may love a cheerful giver but He also expects we will pay our heating and lighting bills and feed our children). But a generous attitude in giving what I can is about the motivation, and this is the spirit of the angels: sent to give a message to smelly shepherds in a draughty field, they could not help but praise God in the highest!

I am focusing on my attitude of giving as well as the amount of my giving - and that includes time and talents as well as financially. 

Thanks for the reminder!