Charity vs. Charitable Giving

What a difference a week makes...

Just last week, I finished filing our taxes for 2009, and to be honest, I was very pleased with them when completed. What? How can Vince say that he was pleased with his taxes after completing them? Is he some kind of nut or what? Well, I was pleased for two reasons.

First, we will be getting a refund instead of having to pay. (Actually this is bad news. I really need to make some adjustments to my allowances so that we keep our money throughout the year instead of the government keeping it for us! But, that will have to be the subject of another blog some other day...)

Second, our charitable giving totals were really great! What a blessing to look back on 2009 and calculate just how much money we actually gave away! I will have to admit, however that the deduction we received for our charitable giving was nice, too! :-)

But then, two totally unrelated activities (or were they?) occured that really humbled me and caused me to rethink how pleased I was after completing my taxes.

As God would have it (He's always teaching me through life experiences!), our neighbors down the street who have been struggling for several years financially (and in a lot of other ways - unemployment, poor health, etc.) had to move out of their house on Wednesday. Right on the heels of that, I had lunch on Thursday with a wonderful, godly man from our church and we discussed at length charity and what God calls us to do for the poor in our midst.

Wow. I realized all too quickly that there is a really big difference between charity and charitable giving.

Charity means giving help to those in need who are not related to you. It also means extending the love of God to others in a completely unlimited way. The poor (widows, orphans, the sick and disabled, etc.) are regarded as proper objects for our charity. This means we are to be primarily concerned with providing them with food, water, clothing, and shelter, and tending to them when they are ill. Beyond this, charity can also mean visiting those who are imprisoned or homebound, and/or ransoming those who are captive against their will.

Sadly, like most Americans, I don't think I really understand charity at all.

Rather, it is too easy for me to just practice charitable giving. And then when I have, I all too frequently congratulate myself with what I've done.

So, what exactly is charitable giving? It is giving money to a person or a church or other worthy cause, either directly or by means of a fund or trust. It can frequently just be a religious act or duty. Not that charitable giving is a bad thing. It really isn't. But, at a minimum, it's just not the same as charity.

What a difference a week makes...

Lord, help me to practice true charity in 2010, not just charitable giving. And let me have a heart filled with JOY (not resentment) as I do it.