Be Charitable

Last week was a hard one. Professionally and personally it felt like I was being disrespected. There was a weird string of events that felt like I was being talked about and characterized in ways that were unfair. 

I spend a lot of time listening to people’s problems and I found the theme of charity to be a recurring one last week. Not in a monetary sense but in the assumption and assigning of motives. I know that when I’m feeling something, it’s rarely just me and maybe it’s confirmation bias but I see the same things in others.

It has left me asking, Do we give people grace or assume the worst? Professionally, I assumed the worst. Personally, the worst was assumed about me. In either case, there wasn’t nearly enough charity conveyed.

Assumptions

I recently finished a book that was lauded by many a few years ago. I walked away from it feeling like it was highly uncharitable. It’s not that much of the book wasn’t factually correct, it’s more that the author repeatedly assigned the worst motives to people. It’s almost as if there were no possibility for pure intentions and no space for true sincerity in their hearts. 

I don’t want people to think of me that way. I know you don’t. So why do we so easily accept that and do it to others? How can we so easily be uncharitable? 

Hebrews 13:16 tells us to do good to others. Doing good is not assuming the worst. It is to exercise grace in how we think and speak about one another. It is to be charitable. 

While most of my issues were resolved last week, it makes me sad to think about what I’ve thought of others and frustrated to hear what others think of me. There is only so much you can control. What people say and think about you isn’t always up to you BUT it is on us to lead the way in how we treat others. 

One common detraction to Christianity is the myriad of non-Christians who are kinder, nicer, more generous, and insert your favorite superlative than most Christians. That’s cool. Can they say that about YOU? I can’t always speak for the Big C church but I can speak for myself. Is my life a good witness to the non-Christians I am in relationship with? The short answer is probably not but we can address that in another issue.

As Christians, we don’t lead with pessimism. We lead with the same warmth and grace that was extended to us through Jesus. The very same Jesus who chose to give his life for us when our sins gave him every reason not to. 

It always goes back there. We love because we have been loved much. We are generous because we have received the ultimate generosity. We give grace and charity because we know charity and grace on a whole other level. 

Of course, this is a lot easier said than done. Especially when considering people’s histories and patterns of behavior. And yet, with all that being true, how can we be more charitable?

The answer will be different for each person reading this but I challenge you, in the ways you think and feel about others: How is God calling you to be more charitable?