Pastor Tim Keller used to say that Christian giving should be sacrificial—that it should shape your lifestyle in a real way. He said “You should give in such a way that it changes your lifestyle.” His encouragement was to give in such a way that my peers (with similar incomes) might have a noticeably higher standard of living, because they aren’t giving as much.
I’ve been thinking about that idea a lot this week.
The week before she was baptized last Sunday, Noelle (age 11)—along with Milo (8), Lola (10), and Sky (7)—set up a lemonade stand near their house. They stayed out there for four hours. They sold more than 80 cups of lemonade. And they made $104.
As a grown adult, I would consider this an enormous success. Honestly, I feel like I’ve won the lottery if I sell something for $50 on Facebook Marketplace. But this was hard-earned, hot, sticky work by a group of kids. $104 probably felt like a fortune.
And instead of splitting it or heading to Sweet Cow for some well-deserved ice cream, they did something remarkable. They put the entire amount in an envelope, wrote their names and “from our lemonade sale” on the front, and slipped it through the mail slot on the church’s front door.
Every single dollar.
When I asked them why they gave it, they said: “We decided to give it to the church because we know that there are people who need the money. And we want the church to use it to help people.”
No parent told them to. They weren’t sitting through a stewardship campaign. They just gave—freely, joyfully, wholeheartedly. It’s such a perfect example of what Tim Keller meant when he talked about sacrificial giving. Not giving out of abundance, but out of the overflowing of love and compassion in my heart.
My heart is so full. I want to grow up to be like Noelle, Milo, Sky, and Lola.
Holly