Give Anyway

With $23,000 in bills due and payable immediately, we didn’t know what we were going to do. Sonja and I discussed asking our bank for a loan, but it turned out we didn’t need to.

—HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, 55

Todd

Don’t you just love generous people who are cheerful givers? Sonja and I were those people before our lives got turned upside down by medical crises. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a strong habit of giving what we could. Giving to our church and to the charities and individuals we supported came first each month when we sat down to pay the monthly bills. We considered it giving to God—or rather, giving back to God, because we believe everything we have is a gift from him.

But after my own medical expenses for a broken leg, kidney stones, and a cancer scare, all requiring time off from work, and then Colton’s two surgeries, things looked different when we faced those bills. We didn’t have enough money to pay the thirty-two-hundred-dollar deductible on Colton’s biggest medical bill, let alone the more than twenty thousand dollars in other payments due that month.

So the question that day was, were we going to give back to God that month or hold on to what little we had for ourselves?

Despite the numbers we were looking at, it wasn’t a hard decision. We gave anyway.

After all, God had just given us back our son. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had Colton. There was no way we were going to stop giving to a God who had done that for us. If we were headed for bankruptcy, okay. But we had our son.

You can always find a reason to give to God when you realize what he’s done for you. On the other hand, I guess you can always find a reason not to give to God if that’s what you’re looking for. I could have looked at what I didn’t have—twenty-three thousand dollars. Instead, I looked at what I did have: my son.

Here’s the truth: God responds to giving, no matter how small the gift or how bad your circumstances. I believe God blesses givers. And he loves it when we can be cheerful givers.

Most people in bad situations think, If I could win the lottery, then I’ll give. The truth is, whether you have little or much, giving should be the same decision, the same habit. Even when you think you can’t, give anyway.

What if our outcome had been different? What if I didn’t have my son? Did I still have reasons to give? Yes, two big reasons: First, I looked at who was holding my son on his lap when I thought I was losing him. Second, I looked at who gave his Son for me.

So even if I didn’t have my son, would I still have had a reason to give?

What do you think?

If you’re in a hard place today, don’t give up on giving. Give anyway.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away.

—2 Corinthians 9:9–10 MSG