Why Giving Tuesday?
By Mark Hayes, President of Ministry
For as long as many of us can remember, Black Friday has been the premier day to get the best deals and to get a head start on Christmas shopping. However, as online shopping grew in popularity, Cyber Monday was developed to accommodate a new shopping crowd.
Although department stores designed these days to get their books back in the black before the end of the year, shoppers embrace these consumer “holidays” as triggers to get their Christmas shopping wrapped up. With much of our country conditioned to get their wallets out immediately after Thanksgiving, some insightful individuals decided to embark on a new “holiday” with a different giving perspective.
How about a day when gift giving is focused on supporting a favorite charity? In 2012, Giving Tuesday was born.
Christmas is a wonderful season for giving, and it is also a wonderful season for giving back. There is great joy in watching your loved one open a carefully chosen gift and seeing the expression on his or her face. There is also tremendous joy in giving gifts to people in need—those whose faces nobody seems to see. Many of you support The Lutheran Home Association, and you have something in common with one another. You have a desire to support Christian ministry. The gifts that you give help others in need by fulfilling a need that goes beyond this life—the Gospel of Jesus.
As a Christian, when you give back, you understand the depth of the gift that was given to you. Jesus cares about your relationship with God. He gave Himself over to be broken and torn from His Father’s love so that He could give it to you. Jesus also cares deeply for the poor, the sick, and the hurting. When you give from the heart, people in your lives and the experiences you’ve had move you toward one cause or another. Some are directly Gospel related, and others focus on physical needs. Both are needs that God cares about. And both are wonderful uses of the resources that God has given you to manage.
If you are in a season in life where financial gifts are not feasible, you may be able to volunteer your time. Even in a social-distanced setting, you can still do some things from home to support the ministries and charities that are important to you. There is a therapeutic element to taking your time to serve others. We spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves and our problems. Putting our hearts and minds toward helping others through their problems takes us outside of ourselves and puts life into perspective. We begin to see more of the blessings in our lives that have been there all along.
Everything belongs to God. God has blessed you richly. Give with joy to your family this Christmas. Also, enjoy the gift of sharing the Gospel and other resources with others. Celebrate God’s love for you by giving back.