What Does It Mean to Give?

Recently, I read a news story about someone very famous giving a large amount of money to help people who were in crisis. It’s easy to look at that situation and be in awe of large amounts of money and compare our own ability to give.

I think we should celebrate and acknowledge when people give. Generosity is always a wonderful thing.

But it can also be a bit intimidating, especially if you are like me and you think that your giving is insignificant in comparison. Or maybe you have heard someone say if I won the lottery I would give half of it to [insert good cause here].  While large sums of money given to charity are helpful and we need people who have a lot to give a lot, what about those who don’t have mass amounts of wealth? 

Let’s take a step back and think about the act of giving. To give means to take something that we own, whether it’s money or resources, and distribute it to someone else.

Pretty simple, right?

Maybe not. 

When we distribute something we own, to someone or an organization, we are going without that money or resource. Giving is actually about sacrifice. Sacrifice means it costs us something. Sacrifice means someone else will gain while I go without. 

When we think about giving, we too often dwell on the dollar amount—but maybe we should think about the sacrifice instead. For some,  giving a $2 is a sacrifice; for someone else giving 20 million dollars is a sacrifice. Giving half of your lottery winnings might not be a sacrifice at all. When we dwell on dollar amounts in comparison to others, it’s easier to become jealous or cynical. I’d like to encourage each of us to reflect on what it looks like for our individual sacrifice and use that as our benchmark for giving. At the same time, when we see others give we celebrate their generosity and sacrifice no matter the amount.

As you reflect on what giving looks like as 2019 comes to end,  try it from the perspective of sacrifice. Give until it hurts, because that’s when you know it’s a sacrifice.