Charity: A Dirty Word

Give without expecting anything back. It's a simple concept. But charity always has strings attached, doesn't it? We kind of feel that we have a right to judge how other people spend their money. We give a friend or acquaintance in need something for "free," but what we have really done is bought the right to judge their future purchases. If we see them in Tim Horton's drive-thru, we muse, "I wonder how much they spend on coffee a year!" Spot them in a new article of clothing and tsk tsk to ourselves, "Did they really need that new shirt?" And so on. I have occasionally been on both the giving and receiving end of charity, and I like to think I have learned a couple of things about it along the way.

Unfortunately, we do not tend to give of our plenty. We give of our trash. I have definitely been guilty of this. All it takes is one glance at any Diabetes Association donation box around the city to see that people are using it as a means of bypassing taking their trash to the junkyard. Old, outdated appliances left out in the rain. Clothes with stains and holes. The poor know when they're being looked down upon. And what we're really doing is wasting the time of the volunteers and workers who have to sort through all our piles of junk--in addition, we are simply taking advantage of the process to make our lives easier. It's easier just to throw all our old stuff in a box than it is to sort through it and donate the appropriate, well-kept items.

Giving becomes just a little more meaningful when we have to sacrifice to do it. The ultimate, obvious example of this is the story in the Bible where the little old widow puts in her two coins as an offering--two coins that, in her precarious financial predicament, might have meant skipping a meal or two. I know that I don't sacrifice enough. We live in such abundant wealth, it's easy to just skim off the top and give of the extra that we don't need or want anyway. But try giving something that might require you to scale back for a week or two.

And most of all, give with respect and without any preconceived notion of requirements or qualifications that a person must meet in order to be worthy of your giving. By respecting the recipients of charity and by elevating them to equal human being status, we can greatly increase the value of our gifts. Because rarely is it that the recipients of charity JUST need physical items. They are often in a position desperately in need of love and respect, as well.