As I was taking a shower this morning it occurred to me what was spiraling down the drain. Water. Clean water. I could drink the water coming out of the shower faucet if I wanted to and I would be fine. More than fine—refreshed. And it dawned on me that it’s a privilege to have clean water as an abundant resource.

More than a billion people in the world have no access to clean drinking water. Most of their water comes from dried riverbeds and even puddles. And, oftentimes they have to walk several miles just to reach the tainted water. That’s crazy.

What’s even crazier though is that machines have actually been invented that purify water with surprisingly little energy needed, and fairly quickly. But there’s not very much money in providing clean water to developing countries. So, as of yet the technology project hasn’t picked up enough funding. Or course, I could be mistaken about all that. I saw it on the Discovery Channel, but can’t recall the name of the project.

So, for now, drilling wells is about as good as it gets. It costs about $5,000 to dig a well, which provides clean water to an entire village.

Reading over their website, I think that The Water Project may be the best place to donate money to provide clean water to folks overseas (although Water:Charity would be a cooler, though not necessarily better, option). TWP connects givers to various projects already, or soon to be, in progress. When filling out the donation, they give you the option to designate where your money is going. It even gives you the option to designate that all of your money be used for the actual building process. In other words, none of it turning around for various organization operating costs.

Being that water, just after air, is possibly the most taken-for-granted thing we have, and knowing that so many people don’t have it, I think TWP may be an really excellent way of giving some of our abundance to solve a really serious problem. I’m planning to give. You should think about it too.

When Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from the tree and comes to his home and dines with him, Zachaeus is thrilled, yet convicted. Jesus is gracious and it drives Zacchaeus to repentance. He vows to give money to the poor and return the money he’s wrongfully taken from everyone else four fold.

This is in response to Jesus’ grace, not to attain Jesus’ grace. And, it’s a near perfect picture of grace-based tithing.

Tim Keller describes it like this:

If salvation had been something earned through obedience to the moral code, then Zacchaeus’s question would have been “how much must I give?” however, these promises were responses to lavish, generous grace, so his question was “How much can I give?”

We’re accustomed to thinking of tithing as giving our 10%. But, new-testament tithing is a grace-based institution. We’ve been given grace and we give in response to it.

I could learn from Zacchaeus’s tender heart in giving abundantly out of his abundant receiving.

The Church in America—me included—has a big problem with giving. Tithing I mean. I’ve talked about it before. The church in America, percentage wise, gives less than almost any other nation.

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul writes to the Corinthian people about the generous giving of the Macedonian church. Out of their “severe test of affliction” and “extreme poverty”, they “overflowed in a wealth of generosity” (v.2).

Paul writes to the church at Corinth (a comparatively wealthy group), stirring them up to generosity using the abundant giving of the Macedonians to shame them.

What Paul writes just a few verses later I found interesting. 2 Corinthians 8:3-6:

“They gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.”

It would seem, taken the larger context, that Paul is saying that the Macedonians, although they were severely afflicted and extremely impoverished, sought to support the saints financially out of the overflow of their joy they had in the Lord. In “giving themselves first to the Lord”.

Although it may not be a direct correlation here, there’s clearly a principle worth observing. The Corinthians were true Christians, yet they needed stirring up in order to give of themselves financially. The Macedonians were also true Christians, but the Macedonians gave themselves to the Lord and as they did that were spurred on to give themselves to the Apostles—financially.

I’ve always struggled with the Church’s use of money. I’ve struggled with the church asking for money, given it usually seems squandered. But scripture makes clear that all we have belongs to the Lord and when we give, we simply give to God what is God’s—something we’re taught to do to exercise faith.

For a number of reasons, both common and uncommon, I find giving financially to be especially difficult. As I do it, It’s often not all that joyful, but more as my own disciplinarian (which is not altogether bad either).

But, It shouldn’t be this way for me, or for you.

Following the principle here, perhaps we should seek to prayerfully give ourselves to the Lord in new ways as the Macedonians did. Possibly embracing our own unique experience of affliction. Hopefully in that, the Lord will cause us to then give ourselves financially as well—which will inevitably lead to our Good and God’s glory.

2 Corinthians 8:1-15:

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you— see that you excel in this act of grace also.

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, "Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

More than half of Christians do not give any money away. Americans who do give, average only about 1.9% of their income. It’s projected that we’ll spend more on our dogs and our weight loss, than our God.

I think I’d like to see us more concerned with our hearts, than our architecture. More interested in letting our lives prove our love for Jesus, than waiting for our awesome sound system and decorative fountain to do it. Does anyone take the scriptures about money seriously? Do I?