Lessons From Mere Christianity: Charity

This is a post in my series of Lessons From Mere Christianity.

For many people, tithing and giving (both time and money) to charity is something that they don't really think about or worry about it. For most of my life, I was the same way. It is very easy to convince yourself that you simply cannot afford to give away money to charity (with bills, school, etc), and you assure yourself that later in life you will be able to afford it better.

However, I am here to tell you that if you do not get into the habit of giving of what you have when it's more difficult to do so, you probably won't start when you get settled. That mythical time when you are "secure" will likely not come - there will always be bills, always be something else to save for, and always be something else that you will want. Generally, this is how life works.

So, if you have established that you need to give, how much? The common reaction will be to give a tiny bit... enough so that you are giving something, but not enough so that it is really actually have an effect on your life. However, CS Lewis writes:

"If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditures excludes them." (86)

If we are only giving of our excess and of the things that we do not need, then we are not really sacrificing at all. A big part of charity and giving is recognizing that even if we give more than we think we can afford to give, we know and trust that God will take care of us. By giving back, we recognize that everything we have already came from God anyway, and if He provided things in the first place, then surely He will provide more than enough with our generous charity.

As Mother Teresa would say, we must "give until it hurts."