Generosity (3): It IS the thought that counts
| And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. (2Corinthians8:10-12) |
Paul is doing the same...
The Corinthians started well, not only by starting to give, but having the desire to give.
But one of the challenges with giving is that it is easy to start the process of giving, but much harder to see it through. There are many challenges to "finishing":
- We get compassion fatigue.
- The initial warm fuzzy we get from giving has faded
- We lose the rose-coloured spectacles we first looked at the recipients with - we begin to see their mistakes and failures (their humanity)
- The giving costs us more toward the end than it did at the beginning
- It feels like what we're giving is so little and we wonder if it is effectual
- Others give more than we do
- We feel people are not grateful
Reading between the lines, the Corinthians were having trouble "finishing" and it seems they were discouraged by the fact that they had very little to give.
But Paul puts this into good perspective when he says: "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have."
It really is the thought (willing attitude) and the finishing that counts!
