Dana Reardon - Giving well gives the best satisfaction

Giving well is part of living well

One of my New Year's Resolution this year is to know more about the charities I support. You can find all kinds of information on the web about the charities and how much of their money is spent on fund raising and operational costs. Often, you can also find out how much the person running the charity is paid.

I still maintain that one of the best places to put your money is Lutheran World Hunger or Lutheran World Relief. I looked it up. Of their total budget, 93 percent goes to direct aid for people. That is a phenomenal number. A radio talk show I was listening to the other day advised that organizations that spent less that 30 percent on operations they were legitimate to support.

So while I can give to this charity and know they are being really careful with my money, I decided I would give with a little less caution this year, of my own money that is. I am very careful with the discretionary fund I have at church.

But when things are really hard you need even more to splurge a little. I took a young woman grocery shopping one day when I was on internship. I told her to buy what she needed to feed her kids and I would pay at the end. She was being very careful and frugal in her choices, but I saw her eying the sweets and things that would make her children smile when she got home.

So I encouraged her to buy a few things for fun. When you have nothing you need that more. Spending a few pennies on something you don't need makes you feel rich. And giving something that is more than just the necessities makes you feel more than rich.

We have an extravagant God who makes me feel rich with all that I have been given. I want to pass that feeling on.

So I was thinking about Jesus saying if someone asks for your coat, give them your cloak also. I thought I might revisit some people who have asked me for help and send them something extra that they didn't ask for.

Maybe we should all revisit what we have given and see what more we could do.

Lord, Who gives us more than we could ever even think to ask for, give us generous hearts. Amen

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.