40 Days Revisited

Well, I did it. Or at least I tried. I said I was going to do the 40 Acts from Stewardship, so I figured you'd like to know how I got on...

I started off better than I did last year, though I still didn't manage to do it the way it was supposed to be done. They send an email every morning, which you're supposed to read and act on; but I didn't manage that. Mainly because I don't read my emails every day - I'm doing well if I manage every 3 days. But I'm pretty sure I read them more often than I did last year - at least to start. One thing I didn't manage, though, was to put photos up; I'm really not that good at social media.

It was different from last year, which I suppose was a good thing, though not for me. I came to the conclusion part way through that it didn't really feel appropriate. I've never been good at fitting into other people's ideas, especially on a tight timescale; but the more important thing was that doing it didn't feel like it would be particularly helpful for me.

It felt like a lot of the things they were asking me to do weren't just a challenge, but pretty nearly impossible; and continuing to do things like that was just too stressful. Also, one of the things I found was that I just didn't have the resources to do some of them. It became clear that I was actually giving pretty much as much as I can, even though that isn't much in itself.

So, I guess that was one good thing that came out of it. And another was that I raised some money for a charity. Ish. What happened was that one of the first tasks was to set aside a jar, and fill it with whatever change I had during the time. I remember that about 2 weeks in, there was a suggestion that I could use that money to do something nice for someone; but, at that point, there was less than £2 in the jar. I couldn't see what I could do with that, so I decided to keep saving it. at the end of the time, there was just over £9 in there, so I sent it to Hope for Justice.

I did do better at the other challenge I set myself for Lent, which was to make an effort to look outside of myself more. By which I intended to communicate with people more, particularly those I hadn't been in touch with for a while. Mostly this was through Facebook, sending messages to people I either hadn't seen or hadn't heard from for a while, but I did actually write to a couple of people as well. Yes, that's right; write. It's not impossible to do. I also meant to get in touch with another couple of people, which I (obviously) didn't get done during Lent; but there's no reason to not do it now. So, that's one thing I will be aiming to do over the next couple of weeks.

40 Acts

What are you doing for Lent, then? Well? I hope you are doing something, even if it's just giving up something like chocolate. I say 'just' because, although most people I know would find that quite hard (and I certainly would), it's not that difficult to figure out how to do-as long as you remember to do it. I remember once I gave up alcohol, and went out to a gig in a pub on the Friday after, and forgot until halfway through my first pint. So, I just decided to add 3 days at the end. More because I knew I could do it than anything else. Someone else I know has decided that giving up things is too hard, so this year she is going to make an effort to be thankful, and thank God for something or someone different each day. Which I think is a brilliant idea, because the point of Lent, as I see it, is to have time for reflection, to think about life and the things you take for granted.

So, I'm doing the same thing I did last year-the 40 Acts challenge from stewardship (hence the name of the post)...

                                                                                              
                                                                                                 ...which is exactly what it sounds like. Doing something different each day that you probably wouldn't normally do.
The way it works is that they send an email each day, and you do what it says-or something similar. It isn't supposed to just make you do things, but rather think about being generous, and thinking about what you do and what you could do.

Last year I found one of the biggest challenges was remembering to look at my emails every day-which I'm already doing better at. And the other main problem I had was that I just don't have much money. So it's not so much that I don't want to be generous, but that I find it difficult to do. For instance, one of the suggestions one day last year was to pay for someone to go on holiday; which, clearly, was just something I couldn't do. I can't even really imagine having enough money to be able to do that. But I did find overall that it did make me think about being generous and stretching myself a bit-which is why I'm doing it again this year.

So, what are you doing..?

The Art Of Giving

Well, a while back God told me He wanted me to (learn to) be more generous, which was something I was more or less in favour of. I'd quite like to be more generous; in fact, I'd like to be able to be generous as a default position, to be able to be it without having to think about it. And shortly after He said that, I saw a challenge online by an organisation called stewardship to do something generous every day during Lent. Obviously, there was a bit more to it than that. The idea was that I would sign up to receive an email each day with a thought and idea of something to do, some way of being generous that maybe I hadn't thought of before. So I did that.

Which led to the immediate problem for me that I, at that point, didn't check my emails every day, more like every 3 days-so that had to change. Obviously, it wouldn't be good for me to have several to check each time I signed in to my email account. Thankfully, for most of Lent it was no problem-until near the end when I temporarily lost my internet connection. But while I could, I did check every day.

It was an interesting time and challenge to do, ranging from some that were fairly straightforward to some that were really challenging and/or just unexpected. There were some I really thought were completely out of my capability; and I remember thinking a couple of times 'how much money do they think I have?' For instance, there was one time when there was a suggestion to pay for a holiday for someone, which I was somewhat shocked at; but I actually did do that one in a small way. There were others, which didn't cost much, but were just surprising ideas-or, at least, ones that I had never really thought about. For instance, there was a suggestion one day to just send some cards or postcards to friends out of the blue, just to say what they mean to me. Now, if I'd ever had that idea before, I clearly didn't think about it, let alone do it; but it is a really easy thing to do, as well as quite cheap. And, also, actually quite fun. And there were a few which I thought were interesting, but which either I just didn't/haven't got round to yet, or can't think how to do. One was to buy a Bible for Christians in parts of the world where they don't have easy access to them, or just can't afford them; which I still intend to do. And another was to buy a tree for someone. This I thought was an amazing idea, but I just can't think how to do it. I might look into that a bit more; I'm pretty sure that you can buy 'gift trees', where the trees are planted in parks or conservation areas, and the person gets a card to let them know what tree they have. I think I'll do a bit of digging around on that one. There was also at least one I couldn't do, which was to give blood. I can't do it for medical reasons, but I would if I could; and I'm asking here for anyone who doesn't to do it if you can. It's easy and doesn't take long-and could save someone's life. As well as that, you could also register for organ donation-if you want more information about how and why, look here. Thanks for that.

There was the option to register when I had done each one, and when I had ticked the box, it said how many others had done so. One thing I was surprised at was how low some of the numbers were-one of the lowest was for people to start buying fairly traded goods; something I have been doing for years. Now I understand that it might be a bit difficult to change your buying patterns quickly, but I was under the impression that Fair Trade was something that was widely known-especially in Christian circles. Evidentally, I was mistaken about this, so for those of you who might want to learn more, you can find out here. Again, thanks. The other thing I noticed was that a lot of the posts (all were written by different contributors) had very specific desires and aims; so much so, that I genuinely don't think anyone could deal with all of them to the level that each post would wish. And this is fine; I don't think God wants us to do that. I think He is interested in all of these things, and would like us to be aware of them; but He has different ideas and dreams for each of us specifically and that is what He wants each of us to concentrate on; not get stressed and upset that we're not dealing with every single issue in existence. Simply because we can't. And the sooner we get to grips with that, the better for us-and for those we interact with.

That is what I learned primarily through doing this. I learned some things about giving and my attitude to it: that I do it anyway; that it's not as difficult to do as I sometimes make it; and that I need to keep growing in it. But the most important thing I learned is that giving is about relationship, about caring; God would definitely like to work on my attitude to things and money-still-but, ultimately, He wants me to give because He wants me to care for and about others. And when I focus on that, it becomes easier-though not often easy. Yet.

Post Script Poem - Giving

This subject has continued to be on my mind since I wrote the previous post, and I felt like writing this poem, which came out quite a bit different to how I thought it might. I'll explain a bit at the end of the post.

                                       

Giving

If giving is better than receiving, 

Then we know giving must be a good thing:

Not only does it do good, 

But it does us good

As we do it;

The more we give, the more we gain, 

And those around us gain as well-

God loves those who give hilariously,

As their giving blesses those who see

And those who receive;

And as we give cheerfully, hilariously,

We are blessed ourselves

(Before, during, after).

So give, because giving is good (for you).

The main thing I guess I need to explain is the reference to hilarity. There is a verse in the Bible often translated 'God loves a cheerful giver'; however, the word translated 'cheerful' is actually closer to the word 'hilarious'. So I was thinking about this, and what it could mean, and the only thing I could come up with is that 'cheerful' giving should be giving that is both enjoyable to watch, and inspires the watchers in some way-as well as being enjoyed by the givers themselves.

Incidentally, I got a message from a friend who lives and works in Kenya who liked the previous post-she said she found it interesting, being in the situation she is in. Which is that her and her husband don't have much (money or otherwise), though they have more than enough. Because they don't need much where they are. But, because they still have more than most people they know, they get asked for help a fair bit. But, no matter what they do, there will still be need-that is clear and obvious. But them being there does help - when I was there in the summer, one of the things I did was go to a children's home and help hand out shoes. Shoes that the money was raised for by people from our church - but those people would never have thought about it, or even known, if she hadn't told people. That was something that would never have happened if she hadn't been there. And that made me think about the effect that each of us have that only  we can have, where we are. What can you do - in your place, your situation? What can you do that no-one else can?

Giving-Without Caring

The idea for this post came about shortly after Destruction Fest (see 2 previous posts), as a result of two things that happened that evening. The first was that on my way home one day, I saw a new Big Issue seller who I hadn't seen before, and I really didn't want to stop-I was completely exhausted-so I didn't. And thought about that most of the way home, as much as I was thinking about anything. The second thing was reading this post from a friend who was also at the weekend, about his experience, and what he remembered about the weekend.

So, giving, what about it? And I don't just mean money, but time, and practical help as well. What about it? As far as I can see, there are two ways to think about it-certainly only two that I am aware of ever thinking, though I often think about it in both ways. The first is that we should give, both because we have more than we absolutely need, and because in some vaguely not-quite-defined way giving is good for us. And the second is that giving should arise naturally out of us, that we only really have to think about how to do it best. Some background to the second is that as we grow closer to God, He changes us to become more like Him in character. We give because we want to more and more often, and we also become more aware of the need around us, even actively look for needs to fill. The problem with this is that it doesn't work. What I mean is not that we don't fill (some of) the needs we see, but that that isn't enough. Clearly; there is still need around us.
And the background to the first way of thinking is that we are told to. Not only do we find in the Bible that giving is always talked about positively, and that God loves a cheerful giver; but, more importantly, we are commanded to love everyone. Starting with God, and then others and ourselves in equal measure. However, it seems that nearly everyone has a problem with that most of the time. I know I do. And, all too often, when this is talked about, there is a vague sense of guilt hanging around. Either of feeling we are not doing enough, or that we could be doing more. Or both-the two are different. The first is looking around and seeing need still there; while the second is just knowing when we have reached our limits. And we will reach our limits before all the need is filled. At that point (preferably before), we should step back and rest, recover our strength, and then step forward again. Otherwise, we will collapse and become part of the need, and so making it bigger. Indeed, in the verse where we are told God loves a cheerful giver, we are told to do it 'not reluctantly or under compulsion' (2 Cor 9:7). We need to know our limits and exceed them rarely-there will be occasions to do this, but it should never become a pattern.

And so back to me, because of course it's all about me. Well, maybe not, but ideas need to be grounded in real life, or they remain (almost) unimaginable. So, two more images. The day after that, at a Bible study group, we were talking about helping vulnerable people, and ways we could do it. I used to be part of a group which went out in the evenings and gave out sandwiches and tea/coffee to people on the streets, which I have taken a break from, and started thinking seriously about going back. I needed a break from it, but I now know I will go back. And the following Sunday after a talk that was introduced as being about evangelism but actually talked about compassion practically, I had a long chat with a friend who I met through going out on the streets. When we met him, he was in a really bad way, but due to many people in the church and God (his words, more or less), he has sorted himself out. I don't lay claim to being a good person, but things I have been involved with have changed people's lives for the better. But there is still need. There always will be, but I can do something. And doing something is better than doing nothing.