The Giving Fund

New Year's is a time for reflection. A time to consider (however briefly) the opportunity to stop smoking, start working out, redo the budget. Prioritize what's important. Clean out the closets. Organize your birthday cards a year in advance and call your grandmother more often. All kinds of dreams, all kinds of ideas.

I know of very few people who have any luck successfully transforming themselves into something different. It's by no means undoable, but unlike far too many self help books that preach the gospel of changing yourself and the actions will follow, I propose a different method. "You are," said Aristotle "what you repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an action but a habit." So change your behavior now, and your heart, mind and soul will follow.

Giving for me was the hardest. I wanted to be the kind of person who gave. I wanted to give because Jesus was the ultimate giver. But it was hard. I had bills. I had a mortgage. And I had an overwhelming amount of guilt because there were people who had it so much worse off than I did, and many of them gave generously. A friend of mine from college had to struggle through her final exams back and forth going to the school's hospital to sit with her mom as she lay dying of cancer. This extraordinarily faithful woman put her hope in the Lord and even as she struggled to raise children alone, she gave faithfully.

Financially, giving was something that I worshipped. It took on a place of importance that turned into a prideful issue. I would most certainly give, but always with a careful eye on my tax write-off, and particularly would give to causes when I felt they were worthy of my gift and I would be properly credited.

As I've grown in my giving, I find those things less important. I make a list of causes that I care about and I give generously. I don't try to give everything to every cause. I don't make excuses that my gift is too little to count, or that the charity can't be trusted. I find charities that I can trust, then I trust them. In its purest form, giving to charity is buying nothing. But if you've ever given regularly, you'll understand that giving will buy you something that no thing can replace.

I challenge all of you who budget to put money in your giving fund. If you can write the check now, then you should. If you can't (and the reason stopping you is almost always fear or greed), then don't write it. But put the money aside and pray about it. Think about the people in your life who have been generous with you, or if you don't have any, break that cycle.

My causes are varied. I care about church, Junior Achievement, Toastmasters, the library and politics. My giving is reflected accordingly. I want you to give boldly, as you've already received. When you give in line with your values, you'll be free.

What I most want is for my life to be an inspiration to the ones I hold the closest. For all the differences you may be able to come up with between Donald Trump and Billy Graham, there's really only one: if you glorify yourself, you must win as somebody loses. If you glorify Him through your sacrificial love and praise, others will lift you up. Look to the Ultimate Giver, for He is the only one who will ever and always out give you.