Christian giving should be habitual, intentional

I enjoy listening to classic rock and one my favorite bands is Creedence Clearwater Revival. Even though much of Creedence’s music came out before I was born or was still in diapers, the driving guitar and powerful vocals of a young John Fogerty are still worthy of drumming out on the steering wheel.

One of Creedence’s classics is “Fortunate Son,” a tale of class distinctions most people would recognize once the song gets going. Fogerty’s refrain throughout the song to hypothetical questions is “it ain’t me, it ain’t me” followed by responses.

Saying “it ain’t me” is the easy way to go. Let somebody else fix the problem. I don’t want to deal with it. We’ve all heard it – and let’s face it, probably said it – more than a few times.

As Christians we need to challenge ourselves in some of these “it ain’t me” moments, and one of them needs to be charitable giving.

A recent Harris poll done in conjunction with the Christian relief organization World Vision revealed an overall drop in Americans’ willingness to contribute to child sponsorship. In the poll, 54 percent of respondents said they would consider sponsorship if they had more money in their pockets and 21 percent said they would be more likely to sponsor if the economy were better overall.

That sounds depressing, but at the same time World Vision reported that its sponsorship rate is up 3 percent from 2008 and revenue is expected to be up by 8 percent.

The positive correlation to make here is that despite the job losses and reduced hours we see in the news, hear about from friends or are experiencing first-hand, a commitment to help the poor is still thriving among many Christians.

This isn’t an endorsement of one particular child sponsorship program or even charity. It could be your local food bank, digging for well water in Africa or contributing to pediatric AIDS research. Giving is a very personal activity, but as Christians we have an obligation to take it from “it ain’t me” to “it has to be me” as a force of habit and intentionality. (Luke 9:46-48)