Giving

From an early age, I learned about giving. Putting money in the offering plate. 

Then Mom and Dad taught me to tithe my small allowance.

It wasn’t much. But I learned what a tenth was. 

And gave every Sunday at our church in Surabaya. 

Spending

The rest of it I spent on myself. Something from the local store. Like a rice krupuk. Or a piece of candy. 

Sometimes I’d run next door and buy sweet lentil popsicles our neighbor made. She poured the liquid into thin, narrow plastic bags and froze them. 

Biting a hole in the end that wasn’t twisted and tied with a rubber band brought sweet, cold refreshment. A nice treat on hot, tropical days.

Money well-spent, I thought.

Giving

Dad was a church planter in our city and the areas around it. He discipled new believers and encouraged their commitment to the Body of Christ. 

As they studied the Word of God, they learned the importance of giving back to God what already belongs to Him.

I remember well Dad’s story about one of the new believers who was part of the newest church plant. 

And the way it caught my heart as a child. Made me think about giving in a new way.

Giving heart

Pak Sudarno* was a poor tailor. Sewing clothes in his thatch house in the kampung. Dirt floor. No indoor plumbing. 

Yet he sewed, washed, and ironed clothing he made. Neat and clean.

He had little money. But a devoted heart. 

And wanted to give what he had to the Lord.

Dad came home one Sunday telling us that Pak Sudarno’s offering that day was a carefully tailored pair of pants. 

His best. Given joyfully, wholeheartedly to his God.

Sacrificial giving

Today, I’m remembering Pak Sudarno. 

And considering the words of Jesus about a woman who put two small coins in the temple treasury.

“‘Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.’” 

All she had to live on.

Sacrificial giving.

Giver of all

How many times do I limit giving? Try to hold on to “what’s mine.” Grip material things or talents. Relationships or time.

Instead of recognizing to Whom these rightly belong? 

The Giver of all good gifts.

“The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.”
2 Corinthians 9:6-8

What about you?

Have you ever struggled with being a “cheerful giver”? What has the Lord taught you about stewardship?

Related

Legacy – Faithful witness – Poor in spirit – 2 Corinthians 9 – Mark 12:41-44 – 

*pseudonym