Today, I took a quick look at how much I have spent on books this year. On the whole, I live a fairly austere life, in that I do not have many luxuries. To an extent, this is part and parcel of being an academic. No one works in higher education to get rich. Still, I was shocked to see how much I had spent over the course of a year. Perhaps my life is not as austere as I had thought.
Then I began to think about how much I had given this year: a paltry amount in comparison. I actually love giving, and cherish every opportunity I get to be generous. How is it that I had let all of those opportunities to give end up filling up my bookcase? What would happen if I had donated just ten percent of what I spend on books? Don’t get me wrong: some of those books will help me grow spiritually. Some of those books could have waited until later. I didn’t need to have all of them when I purchased them. Many of them were impulse buys.
This serves to remind me of the choices that I make with my money. I don’t think that it is good to start making rules about how much to give. There is no real guide that I know of as to how much giving is enough. But we could each stretch a bit more. Try this: the next time you go to the store, buy $5 worth of food for someone who may not get a meal. This may mean putting back that bag of chips, but this is no sacrifice. To an organization that provides food to the needy, however, this small donation may mean that one more child will not go to bed hungry for one night.
On the radio today, I heard in a recording Ayn Rand say that the greatest virtue is to provide pleasure for oneself. This is the way that many of us live, but it is in direct opposition to the way of Christ. We are our brother’s keeper. It is a virtue to help our wounded neighbor. Perhaps, it is time that I take a few small steps to fulfill this obligation.
