Giving: A Dangerous Business

In Dr. John Perkins' book Beyond Charity, he describes the act of giving as being "a dangerous business." As Robert Lupton puts it, "Receiving is a humbling matter. It implies neediness. It categorizes one as being worse off than the giver." Perkin goes on to say that we must therefore "be careful how we give. Giving should affirm and not dehumanize. We give because God gave to us. We should be humbled by our opportunities to give... The concept of giving is one of the greatest challenges facing the church in the days ahead. The church's efforts in Christian community development must go beyond charity. They must go further than acts of kindness. Somehow we have to disconnect what and how we give from our need to feel good about ourselves."

It is rather easy to simply give and feel good for the giving. It doesn't matter if we gave the man on the street $5 or dropped off a bag of used clothing at the local thrift store -we still walk away feeling slightly better than we did the hour before. But that lightness of step, that fresh-air feeling and indescribable joy and satisfaction with ourselves, is mostly unfounded. As Perkins states, a gift is something we ourselves would wish to receive. If we were hurting and alone, would we want someone to stuff a dollar into our hand and so prolong our frustrating existence of addiction, shame, and solitude? Or, alternatively, how might we respond if a friend at church placed a bag of stained and tattered clothing in our arms and said, "here, I thought you could use this!" Yikes.

But if we give "because God gave to us," as Perkins argues, what might that look like? If giving is an act of love, then we might think of 1 John 4:19 and "love because He first loved us." Giving is then synonymous with love. God's love, made manifest in the giving of His son, was characterized by sacrifice. It reached deep to the heart of the matter -which was that we were hopeless and dying, unable to lift a finger to change our situation. If we take this example and apply it to our lives, how might this change how we give?

It is not enough to give  and hope for the best. We cannot afford to shrug our shoulders and wash our hands of this messy business called poverty. What a shame this would be to the Cross! This business of giving, messy though it is, is the business of the church. It cannot end at writing a check to the local non-profit or donating unwanted items to the faceless poor. The business of giving must take place in the context of relationship. Perkins argues that, "the best that God's people have to offer is relationships with the poor that reflect that kind of careful, quality attention we have in our own families. This is the high quality of relationships offered by a people seeking to 'love their neighbor as they love themselves.'"

So this week, as you look towards the celebration of Easter and contemplate the wonderful and incomprehensible death and resurrection of our Savior, don't forget the poor. Honor the Cross by making a commitment to enter into a relationship with someone who is "poor" -who lacks connections, is isolated, powerless, physically weak, at risk, or is unable to meet their own basic needs. Don't throw a ham on their front porch and run away. Knock on that door and allow yourself to be humbled as you give the greatest gift you can give- a moment when you allow yourself to need another human being even as you give yourself in friendship.