All in.
Dan Kunz
Every December my wife and I sit down to look at what our expected income will be for the coming year and what the “spendable” portion will be, excluding taxes, insurance, and all the “stuff” which you must pay out to live on a day-to-day basis. Once we have that number, we arrive at a percentage which will be earmarked for God’s work, humanitarian causes, family gifting, and so on. It’s actually kind of a fun process and we enjoy being as generous as possible, especially when it comes to the faith-based part. Unfortunately, we didn’t always operate that way. We weren’t always so “intentional” in our planning or our giving.
Because most people take seriously God’s admonition to not be boastful or arrogant about their giving, I’m not sure we always do a good job of teaching the next generations how to be intentional in their giving. My parents always had their church envelope on the dining room table on Sunday morning as a reminder to give something back to the Lord and always made sure I had something to put in the collection plate, but that’s about the extent of my instruction in the fine art of giving. My wife and I have tried to do a better job when it comes to our own kids, however, I’m not sure we’ve done as well as we could. Sitting down and going through the planning process of charitable giving with our children and grandchildren is a valuable thing to do.
If you don’t know or remember the episode from Jesus’ life with a chief tax collector named Zacchaeus, you can read about it in Luke 19:1-10. We’re told he, Zacchaeus, was a very wealthy man. Once the Law and Gospel touched his heart, he was immediately “all in”. Luke 19:8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” He pledged to give away half his wealth and repay four times what he had cheated people. Four times! Half his wealth! Most of us probably feel pretty good about tithing, giving one tenth of our income to the Lord and other charitable causes. Zacchaeus was just picking up speed at one tenth! Certainly, great wealth provides the opportunity to do more and still have the funds necessary to live, but as in the case of The Widow’s Mite, Jesus pointed out the degree of dedication, not the number of digits before the decimal point, is what interests God.
It is important to be intentional about our giving. It is important to instruct future generations how to use their blessings. It is important to have a heart which is “all in”. The 2025 Christian Leadership Experience is titled, Blessed 2 Bless, in order to remind all of us to use our blessings, financial and otherwise, to be a blessing to others. God uses the wealth of the universe to bless us in more ways than we can count or even realize. Using those blessings for the benefit of his people and his work should be the most natural thing in the world for us. When we realize that God didn’t even spare his own Son in blessing us, it becomes easy for us to be “all in”!