Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday. I had never heard of such things until recent years. They just keep growing. First there was Black Friday. Growing up, it was never called that. It was the day after Thanksgiving. A big shopping day. I remember when we delivered the Herald & Review in Decatur, IL, the newspaper for Thanksgiving was HUGE! I mean really big. There were so many sale ads. We had to stuff the papers to get them ready for delivery. There was no Internet, no online shopping, none of those things. It wasn't even called Black Friday. I don't know when it became Black Friday. I guess someone decided it was a good thing and it stuck. Not sure why it is "black" but that is what it is.
Then came Cyber Monday. Why? Because folks started shopping online. Sitting at home on the comfy couch, you could spend your money. You could get what you wanted without facing the crowds. Stores began to run special sales on Monday after Black Friday. So it became "cyber" Monday. Shop, shop, shop! Spend, spend, spend. The more you shop, the more you save, every day at Shop and Save. Wait, that was a store ad. Guess it really plays into Cyber Monday. Save big money by spending big money. I guess it makes sense.
The came Giving Tuesday. What is it? The chance to help not-for-profits. After spending all your money, maybe you will feel a little guilty about focusing so much on the self, on the material, that you just might want to quell the conscience. Give to some organization that could use your financial help. So now, the email is filled with Giving Tuesday requests. Give to this one. Give to that one. I would suggest LWML if you are looking for somewhere to give on Giving Tuesday. Or perhaps your local church. Think about how much that would help here at St. Paul's if you were to support the local congregation in the work it does. Makes me think, maybe St. Paul's should get into Giving Tuesday next year, send out the emails, mailings, and all in order to gain your dollars.
Then I thought, is that really good stewardship? Who cares? As long as you get the money. As long as you meet the budget, who cares about stewardship? The Lord does. I do. And you should. Christian stewardship is not seen in guilt giving. It isn't taking part in Giving Tuesday. It is regular use of the resources that the Lord has given you. It is continuing to use your financial resources in a way that gives glory to your Lord and helps your fellow man. In reality, if members of congregations would be faithful in their giving to the local congregations, if they were tithe in a faithful manner, most congregations would not have any financial problems. Churches wouldn't have to beg for money to meet the bills. They wouldn't have to do fundraisers in order to make ends meet. That is poor stewardship. Terrible stewardship. It betrays either poor giving stewardship on the part of the members and/or poor stewardship use of the financial resources of the leaders of the congregation. Yes, it goes both ways. Members have poor giving habits. Leaders have poor spending habits. It is terrible stewardship for a church to spend more than it could ever support. Ask for more money, to spend more. It might be that the reason it is spending so much is that it feels like it is doing the right thing. But perhaps each congregation should take a hard look at what it is doing and ask, "Is this really what we need to be doing?" It is hard because it might mean giving up a sacred cow.
How did I get there? I don't know. That is what rambling does. It takes you places that you weren't expecting. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and faithful Christian stewardship. All tied together somehow. I will let you wrestle with it. I know that I do. I wrestle with it regularly even without realizing that is what I am doing. Lord, give me guidance. Give each of us guidance and wisdom these days.
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