Written by Revd Paul Child, Generous Giving Advisor
Once upon a time an acquaintance of mine had the pleasure of meeting the 1980’s pop sensation Rick Astley. They chatted for a while, about music and celebrity and Rick’s great passion – films. As they were quite close to where he lived, Mr Astley offered my pal a chance to look through his expansive collection of movies, and they spent a while flicking through shelves containing every genre you could think of. Then, as their time together drew to a close, Rick offered to lend him any of the DVDs from his collection.
“Well, any of them – except one,” he continued.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m… ♪♫“Never gonna give you Up!” ♫♪
With Easter being so early this year, we find ourselves rapidly racing from Christmas to Candlemas to Lent - and with this sudden change of pace leads me to wonder how your Lent is going? Did you make the choice to set something aside for this period of preparation? What led you to pick that particular thing – and what are you replacing it with?
I ask this because it seems self-denial is only part of the challenge of Lent - not eating cakes or staying off the beer is only really a Lenten discipline if we use the time and resources we receive from doing it in to deepen our relationship with, and build our trust in, Jesus.
So, if you’ve decided to forgo your favourite chocolaty treat or tipple or whatever it is this year, why not prayerfully consider putting the money you would have spent on it to one side and then giving it to your church at Easter – not instead of your regular contribution, but on top of.
And every time you wish you could be eating or drinking or participating in whatever it is, give thanks that you have the opportunity to choose to treat yourself or deny yourself like this, pray for those who are not so lucky…and ask God how you can continue to give proportionally, regularly, sacrificially and cheerfully beyond Lent and throughout the year.
Dare we put aside the talk of not having chocolate biscuits for a few weeks and talk about the real changes we can make – changes that will lead us to be generous givers of our time, our talents and, yes, our treasure in the name of Jesus Christ? Dare we open our hearts and open our purses to help the kingdom of God move and grow wherever God has called us to be so all can see and experience the glory of the crucified, risen and ascended Lord? Dare we put our money where our mouth is and seek, in word and deed, to truly love the one who on the cross proved beyond doubt he would never, ever give us up – Jesus the Christ, in whom we live and move and have our being? Amen.