pillows, cable, clothing, and candy

Have you ever genuinely desired to give to a charitable cause but have found yourself “strapped for cash” or "maxed out"? I’d like to give you a few ideas to help extend your charitable giving and ultimately, it involves sacrifice.

Here in Wilmington, North Carolina, at bare minimum, I'll pay ten to fifteen dollars when I go out to eat (after taxes and tip).  As a single, unmarried man with no family I usually eat out at a sit-down restaurant maybe once or twice a month. In my college years, I used to make a habit of eating out almost every Sunday after church. Many families still do this today. One year, during these Sunday afternoon meals, as I was fasting from drinking tea and soft drinks at sit-down restaurants, drinking only water, every time I would go out to eat I'd add two dollars to an account in my head (because I didn't pay for a drink).  Over a period of several months of drinking only water, the account raised substantially and I felt led to give this amount to a non-profit that feeds the hungry. This is a small example of how you can "live below your means" in small ways in order to be able to give more.

Also, each time you don't go out to eat on a Sunday afternoon, drink that water instead of Dr. Pepper, or fast from eating altogether, it serves as a great physical reminder to pray for whomever it is you are sacrificing.  With every thanksgiving over a meal at home instead of out at a restaurant, you can intercede for whatever charitable organization, missionary, or sponsored child you are supporting. That includes (but isn't limited to) every moment where you want to have that Diet Pepsi but instead choose to drink water in order to give more.

In summary, here are a few tips, all of which center around giving the money that you would be spending to a charitable organization or valued non-profit.

1. The next time you want to go see a movie (or another recreational activity), save the $10-20 and do a Redbox rental (or something else), and give what you would have spent.
2. Eat out less often and each time you stay at home and eat a PB&J instead, give and pray.
3. When you're tempted to go to Starbucks or PCJ for a coffee, pray and give the five bucks you would have spent instead.

The options are endless!  Obviously, those listed above are all very meager "sacrifices" in light of what has been done for us and barely could even be called such.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9 

If you're feeling really brave, don't eat out all month or cut out on (dare I say it?) cable or internet. In the end, this post is simply supposed to serve for those who wish they could give but find that their budget doesn't seem to allow it. And the point is, where there's a will, there's a way. You only have to ask yourself, How bad do I want to give more?

Allow me to close with lyrics from one of my favorite songs, "Love Through Me" by Jenny and Tyler:

"So would I give up:

Pillows and cable, clothing and candy,

If a girl could have some more to eat?

Would I lay down:

Making all this money, just to have my milk and honey,

If my fellow man could get the chance to hear about the King?"

Food for thought.