A Cup of Generosity: December, 2022
A Cup of Generosity is a monthly letter from Pastor Dana Karen Reardon and the Grand Canyon Synod Stewardship Team. Feel free to use the posts or PDFs in congregational newsletters, sermons, programming, or any other use. View our archive page, or view our main stewardship page here.
“ When you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”
It occurred to me the other day as I was trying to work with a budget app that my daughters had talked me into, that sooner or later your left hand is going to figure out what your right hand is doing.
I'm 70 years old and never had a budget in my life but my income has gotten smaller recently and I thought maybe it was time, but when I try to put things in the proper columns in the budget a lot of things don't add up, like the impulse to send something to LIRS because I saw something about immigrants. Yes, if I ever get this budget going there will be money allotted for tithing. The scripture calls it first fruits so it ought to be the first thing in this budget. I'm not sure, if all the times I “just decided” I ought to send some money to some cause or other, it will quite fit.
So I am starting to realize if in the metaphor your right hand is the one doing the giving then it ought to inform your left hand not so you can pat yourself on the back or get praise from others, which is what Jesus is discouraging, but so that you can adjust and change your priorities to include more and more the needs of others.
A budget Is in a sense a statement of faith. You can look at it and clearly see what is of utmost importance to you and what matters very little. Who and what do you hold close enough to want to spend your money on? And in whom or where do you put your trust.
So I have decided that at least for me it is more important for my right hand that is doing the giving to tell my left hand how to do the budget, (oh I guess this metaphor works since I'm left-handed and I'm working on the budget with that hand) than for my left hand that does the budget to tell my right hand how much I can give.
The good news is that God doesn't have a budget when it comes to giving to us. The Lord always looks down on us and showers us with blessings, more than we could ever earn or deserve. Whatever we are including in our budget came from God and we just get to share it as we share the love that God has so richly given us through Jesus Christ.
My prayer for all of us is that this good news of God's love so freely given will touch our hearts and that our hearts will tell our right hands, who will tell our left hands and our budgets, and our lives will in small measure reflect the generosity of God. Amen
