Breakin' 2: Giving Healthily

So maybe after yesterday's post, you're all in. You're ready to start taking up a new discipline of regular giving--to your church, a cause you love, an organization you're involved with, your friendly IV staff worker, whatever.

A few thoughts about disciplines in general and about financial giving specifically might be in order.

First, remember that as with most things that require our participation, pride is a distinct possibility. There is no way around this and it seems that the Lord desires to keep the possibility of pride in play as a further component of our walk with him.

So just keep a pulse on how much you pat yourself on the back. If you're breakdancing at the offering plate because you're awesome, you're off course. If you're breakdancing because you've been set free, that's where you want to be.

It's tricky because on the outside the moves look exactly the same, but who you're becoming underneath the activity is a completely different thing.

Another helpful check on pride: how you respond to others around you who do not engage in the same disciplines? Self-righteousness is always a good indicator of bad things brewing in our hearts.

Secondly, remember that all the disciplines are designed as channels of grace. They are a means to a greater end, not the end themselves.

The goal is not that you give your money away. The goal is that you worship God and not money.

This distinction between means (giving) and ends (true worship) helps to keep us from a checklist mentality.

It is good to want to make a difference in the world--that is a God-given impulse. But sometimes our demand for instant feel-good-ness (which is one of our cultural diseases) can cloud the issue.

In many cases we need to be willing to give even when we do not see instant, spectacular results. Giving to help your church pay the light bill has less buzz than sponsoring a child, but that may be exactly where God is calling you to invest.

Lastly, all the disciplines will at times lose their vibrancy and at points feel like a chore.

In those periods, it is helpful to pull back and check some things out: do I know why I'm doing this? Have I gotten into a rut that can easily be addressed with some holy creativity? Do I need to fast for a season from this discipline in order to not toil under a heavy weight of legalism?

The last option above is one that must be weighed very cautiously. An object at rest from giving or praying or breakdancing or whatever tends to stay at rest.

But there have been times in my life where the holiest thing for me to do was to break from a discipline in order to re-gain healthy perspective.