Giving Tuesday

In the whole hubbub about no shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday’s obvious drawbacks, there are a few positive inventions. Small Business Saturday, which I thought would be good in the spring, is that Saturday after Thanksgiving. Then, there’s Sale Sunday everywhere. Cyber Monday is next, so you can buy anything you’re too tired to go shopping for or any little thing you’d missed while you were out.

Then there’s Giving Tuesday. Bad timing, if you ask me. With four days to spend all your Christmas money before it, what’s left? We tithe. That means that we set aside 10% of all the money we earn or receive as God’s money. We also set aside offerings at various times throughout the year. We don’t spend it on ourselves or use it for things we think we need. We don’t even give it to ministry without prayer and evaluating how it would be used.

As soon as I was out of the grasp of my trafficker, I began tithing. I was on public assistance, but I still gave. Abuse can really skew the way that we cope with things. Money is such a big part of our lives here in the US. I know lots of people who have a really messed up relationship with money that have not been abused. “Relationship with money?”you might think. My friend Maureen writes about it.

Money is a thing. We relate to all kinds of things in this world. We dress, cook, take shelter, bathe, work, drive, read and write. All of these activities involve objects that we manipulate with our bodies to work for us. Money is no different. Sometimes we make decisions that increase or decrease the amount we have, but we use it to accomplish stuff.

In Scripture, we have a great commission: to go share the Gospel to everyone. That can only be done with resources. Papers that have the Good News are called tracts. We still use them. Memes can be created and sent on the internet. This isn’t free, you must have a connection. Someone’s paying for it. We travel to share it. People make movies and art and music to share the message.

Giving Tuesday is a great way to use money to do good. I wish it was on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t make it up. Maybe next year someone will move it. If not or until then, we can set money aside to do good and share on Giving Tuesday.

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday this year. There are lots of ways to give too. You can shop through an organization that has partnered with retailers, like Good Shop or Amazon Smile. You can give online to most ministries now, by their donate buttons. You can send a check. You can make a monthly pledge. Some ministries give you this option online too. So, we can electronically transfer money every month and they can count on it. It’s a huge help and it spreads it out, so it doesn’t hurt the pocketbook so much.

You can give stuff too. As you are going around shopping, replacing things, maybe you have some things of value, but you don’t used or need. Perhaps, you don’t know who to give them to. Google knows who would accept donations in your area. Local churches probably do too.

I hope you’ll make Giving Tuesday part of your holiday traditions. What are some ways you celebrate this time of year by giving?