‘Giving’ within in the Christian world, is a very diverse and versatile word. There are so many thing facets of giving. One has to give his or her time, money, resources, talents etc to God. Usually this is summed up by saying “One has to give his/ her whole life to God.” I am sure no one is going to question in me on this. As Paul would say, this is a trustworthy saying. But since giving is diverse in our definition, there are some pitfalls every Christian has to watch out for in the process of giving. And to be honest, this is a reflection of one of the struggles that I go through and hoping to change in the new year.

One mistake a Christian has the potential to make is giving what is wrong. Duh! That’s obvious! In the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers, we see the God giving detailed instructions about sacrifices. Male goat, a year old, without any blemish, healthy and so on. So, for an Israelite to sacrifice a weak grandpa goat which was limping was outright wrong! So how does this apply to a Christian in the 21st century? We can ponder over this question but I highly doubt if anyone would offer something to God that is outright ‘wrong’ like the sick sheep. However, we tend to give God mediocre ‘stuff’.

In the story of Cain and Abel, the Bible says, Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock and the Lord looked with favour on his offering. Cain bought ‘some fruits’ from the soil. God did not look at it with favour. We know the rest of the story. When I meditated on this, 2 possibilities came to my mind on why Cain gave sub-standard offering. One, his attitude towards God was poor that he felt content in giving second best to God. That’s a dangerous place for any Christian to be in. Can one have such a relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Maker of the heavens and the earth? Human mind has the power to diminish God that man can actually think that he can modulate his relationship with God! When he wants to be close, he will be close and during most times God is kept at a ‘healthy’ distance. In Revelation God talks to those people and says, you are neither cold nor hot and I want to spit you out! It would be a good time to check our attitude about God. Are we worshiping Him in Spirit and in truth? Are we working out our salvation with fear and trembling? We get a glimpse of the throne room in

Isaiah chapter 6. It says the when the Seraphs worshiped God the doorposts and thresholds shook! If the mighty doorposts of the throne room can shake how terrifying would it have been for Isaiah? We cannot have a light attitude about God.

The second reason could be because Cain had a poor attitude towards his work(or purpose). He actually gave the best of the produce but the standard of ‘his best’ was very poor because he put in mediocre work to get the produce! Mediocrity is one of Christian’s greatest enemies. A man of God once quoted, “Mediocrity is the language of the devil”. But who doesn’t struggle with it? I do! The consequence of mediocre giving is dangerous. When the exiles return to Jerusalem from Babylon, they agree to rebuild God’s temple. However, they lose focus, become mediocre and do renovations to their own homes without working on God’s temple. Here is what God tells them in the book of Haggai, ”You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” It’s crucial that a Christian never falls down to this level in giving to God. Mediocre giving withholds God’s blessing on us. So how is our attitude towards our work/school/ college? Are we able to offer our best wherever God has put us that we would be able to offer that to God?