Willingly

 November 16, 2021

“They gave willingly.” —1 Chronicles 29:9. When King David laid up supplies for the building of the temple he would never see, he invited the people, great and small, to give as well. He knew what we often forget in our increasingly “freebie” society: people need to invest in their own future and well-being. 

More than 25 years ago when we began gearing up for the building we now occupy, the fund-raising specialist we hired insisted that he have a list of everyone’s giving record. We got a lot of resistance from this request; some saying that such records were confidential and no business of anyone. Some were quite pointed in their insistence that the pastor not know about their giving habits. I guess they thought it would influence how I meted out pastoral care. I responded that if they couldn’t trust me with their financial information, why would they trust me with the care of their eternal souls? 

Eventually, we got the information, and it shocked me to learn that the most vocal objectors objected for a very good reason; namely, their own giving was minimal. The fund raising specialist we hired said to us, “If you want to succeed, you need your top givers leading the way.” Some we first thought would be in leadership we bypassed for others who quietly, but faithfully were going above and beyond. They had skin in the game.

I think there was another factor playing into their generosity besides having skin in the game. In v. 14, David offers his prayer with these words, “All things come from You, and of Your own we have given…[It’s] from your hand, and is all your own.” When we give from our possessions, we are diminished by whatever amount we give. When we give back what has been loaned to us, we realize we are only returning what we have borrowed and instead of being diminished, we know we have been enriched. I can be grateful for what has been loaned, and return it with gratitude.

When we realize that all we have doesn’t really belong to us, it is easier to let it go. It is true of our finances, our relationships, our time. All we so sparingly mete out isn’t ours to begin with. When I hold it loosely, all of life becomes a gift of grace and the occasion for gratitude. Now, all I have to do is actually put the principle into practice.