Why Give? (Part One)

Giving.  It’s one of the most basic acts we perform each and every day, in varying degrees of greatness.  But why do we give?  Is it simply from habit?  Or is there a greater reason behind the gift?

For me, the motivator in giving has to be unconditional love.  This is a phrase that I use almost to the point of exhaustion in my conversations; almost to the point that the words lose their spark.  I find that sometimes, my giving loses that same spark as well.  When I begin to feel as if I’m just going through the motions of giving, I have to stop and remind myself of what those two words truly mean, and how they’ve encouraged my giving.

As a child, I could easily identify unconditional love – that’s how my parents loved me.  I knew that when I colored on the walls as a toddler, when accidentally left the freezer door open as a kid (spoiling pounds upon pounds of flash frozen beans and corns, and flooding the garage), and especially when I backed into the mailbox as a teenager…my parents would be upset, but they still loved me.  They loved me regardless of what I’d done.  As I became older, I found myself feeling that same type of love for others.  There were times in my life I wouldn’t have had the words or knowledge to explain why I felt that love, but it was there, like a warm hearth in my heart…glowing, and waiting to be kindled.

As I grew in my faith, and found the answers to that love, I knew it needed to be shared.

Unconditional love is the great motivator to giving.  Our giving comes from the love God has for us.  Never in all the world has there ever been, or ever will be, a love as great as His.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” John 3:16

A scripture many of us know by heart; probably one of the very first memorized by most of us.  But have you ever stopped to consider those words, and that love?  A love so all-consuming and powerful, that God was willing to send his Son to die for us?  There are times I find myself dizzy just trying to wrap my head around such an idea.  If God loves us so very much, isn’t it not just our duty, but our joy, to return that very same love?

“This is my command: Love each other.” – John 15:17

The answer is, emphatically, YES!  Yes, we are to return that love to everyone we encounter.  As followers of Christ, we are called to give that unconditional love.  Love, like giving, isn’t an obligation.  Not a task to be checked off the to-do list, not an accomplishment for the day.  Love and giving are part of our lives, a daily act.  Second nature.

On those days where I question why I’m giving, or when the giving begins to feel rote and routine, I hear those six important words in my head, “For God so loved the world…” And instantly, the spark becomes a burning fire in my heart.