How to Find Buried Treasure - and Give it Away!

"Freely 
  you have 
    received, 

      freely give."  

      (Matthew 10:8b)

There's one thing that just about everybody knows:  giving is good.  And Christians especially, knowing that God has given us so much, are all about giving to others.  Most of us start with the Old Testament standard of tithing (charitably giving away ten percent of what comes our way) and then seek, by God's spirit, to go even further.  Giving is simply what Christians do.

So what is "almsgiving," this special desert discipline we're called to consider during our journey through Lent?...


   (TO READ FURTHER, CLICK ON "READ MORE" BELOW)

The word "almsgiving" is old and out-of-date.  It brings to mind Oliver Twist orphans in Charles Dickens' England, extending their thin arms and crying out, "Alms for the poor, alms for the poor!"  That very word "alms" has an ancient pedigree; excavate deep enough and you reach the word's Greek root; it means "pity" or "mercy."  Now we've found it--here's the buried treasure!  it is precisely the melody of God's mercy that we're invited to march to as we journey the desert road with Jesus.

Very honestly, talk about yet another "opportunity to give" and it's easy for Christians to feel tapped out.  Most of us not only give generously on a steady, ongoing basis; we give, on top of that, to special needs as they arise.  So when we're invited to consider yet another, different sort of giving for Lent?  We may be less than enthusiastic.  Between you and me, we're already feeling a bit burned out in the giving department.

But I think the hidden glory within the "almsgiving" of lent lies in that hidden meaning buried deep inside the word:  the idea of showing mercy.  Maybe the lenten call is less to the action of giving than it is to a state of the heart.  Almsgiving is about a readiness to see and care and respond.  And yes--that often turns into giving.  But it's not a matter of merely digging out some spare change or writing yet another check.  It's the delight of finding ourselves drawn into the spirit of Jesus himself.  He's the one, after all, who saw hungry crowds and--surely tired and hungry himself!--"had pity on them" (Mark 6:34 BBE).

God himself is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2.4).  He has lavished that mercy on us through Christ (1 Peter 1:3).  If we allow God to make us more like himself, we begin to think in new ways.  And that new way of thinking is a "wisdom from above" that is "full of mercy" (James 3:17).

You may already be giving regularly and liberally toward the things that are on God's heart.  If you are, praise God for his good work within you!  (Philippians 2:13)  But you are still invited to explore the desert discipline of "almsgiving."  Ask God to help you let down your guard and to actually see and feel compassion for some of the needy people you encounter during the day.  Be open to the Spirit of God and consider a little extra giving as an act of mercy.