When in doubt, give

It's easy for me to hoard things. Random stuff, that is weird at times to think about. I'm a fan of it...here are few examples.

baseball cards:
I have two boxes completely full of baseball cards that I haven't gone through since 1990 something.

deodorant:
I collect deodorant sticks although our current budget doesn't allow me to purchase a large amount of these. If my wife would let me I would have like 25 in my medicine cabinet.

books:
I enjoy books any can about any subject. I'm curious to learn new things pretty much all the time. So, we have a lot of books, but I would take more if you are giving them away.

music and movies:
I'm a fan of every kind of music and movies. I think both teach us things about our culture and are telling us something bigger than the genre they are assigned to.

I'm in transition again. Having a third child in the house is making rethink of ton of different weaknesses in my personality. Such as collecting, hoarding...

When I give away my possessions, clean out the closets, give money to someone who needs something warm to drink. Whatever it is I'm giving away, I'm so much freer than I was without the action of letting go of all the above things.

What do I need to learn about giving personally?

In my life, how do I learn to give, so as not to approach everything from the feed me culture that is crippling generations of gifted followers of Jesus?

What do I want my kids to take away from what we are learning about giving to others?

Here's a story I read that made me start to contemplate the idea of giving. (It's summarized) C.S. Lewis and his friend Walter Hooper were walking from the university home and a beggar stopped them. Lewis reached into his pockets for change. Hooper asked "aren't you worried that he will spend it on a drink?" Lewis said, "I'm worried, I will." C.S. Lews said to his friend he was led by a specific principle "when in doubt, give."

I don't know about you, but this hits home with me. I don't operate this way. I don't always need to know where something is going..I need to be faithful in giving away what God has given me simply.

Stewardship is an important element. I think one of the only ways we are going to move forward is to get out of debt so we can give generously to others. Our government is going the opposite way be emphasizing someone else giving to us. But practically we have to unlearn our dependency on others to hand something to us. Work hard, give generously and get out of debt so we can give freely to others.

When in doubt, give.