My History With Charity

Walking into the grocery store last week, I heard the familiar tinkling of a bell. The sound drew my attention to the man dressed as Jolly Ol St. Nick who stood in the chilly entryway. He waved and smiled even though I did not stop to place anything in his little red kettle. 

Walking past him, I smiled and waved too. I had to admire the man for his volunteerism.  He was collecting donations for a charitable organization that distributes food, clothing, shelter, counseling and financial assistance to those in need. 

Though I was not charitable with my finances on that particular day, being charitable encompasses more than philanthropic activities. Charitable or charity has a lot to do with love.

I’d first heard the word charitable as a kid. My father often stressed to my siblings and me the importance of being charitable toward each other. Though he never defined the word, I got the gist of it. 

Unlike his scoldings, whenever Dad spoke about being charitable toward each other it was always with a soft voice filled with passion. His expression of concern showed me that being charitable was important to him, something he really wanted to get across to us.

 He longed for us, his children, to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving toward each other. He’d stress, “For the love of God, set your bickering, nitpicking and blaming aside.”

Though I knew being charitable was the right thing to do and that it would please Dad, I didn’t often feel charitable toward my brothers and sisters, mostly because they weren’t charitable toward me.

Dad’s hope for us; being charitable toward each other, was a wonderful, but a grandiose idea. It was extremely difficult, and nearly impossible, as children, to carry out.

Supernatural Charity 

Since my childhood days though, I’ve grown up and matured in my personal faith in God. Consequently, Dad’s idea about being charitable toward others is no longer a grandiose, difficult, or nearly impossible, idea to live out.

Whenever I read scripture, especially Paul’s epistles to new believers, I am encouraged to live in a way that displays the charity of God which he has toward me. 

God’s charity toward me never gives up or wears out. He is charitable toward me, not because I have done anything great, but because he is great. 

Because God is charitable, he does not kick me when I am down, or revel when I grovel. Instead, as I reach up for help from the pit of self-pity, arrogance or cluelessness, he reaches down, pulls me out, dusts me off and cheers me on to continue in my faith in him. 

God is infinite and magnanimous and so is his charity toward me. God is unswerving, trustworthy and generous and so is his charity toward me. 

Though it has taken me years to understand Dad’s lesson in being charitable, it is starting to sink in. 

Why Bother?

Why bother being charitable? If we are recipients of God’s charity, then it becomes natural for us to be charitable toward another.