“My wife and I have a commitment regarding giving our money while we are alive. I like the old saying, ‘Do your givin’ while you’re livin’, then you’re knowin’ where it’s goin’.”
Charles R. Swindoll in Great Lives: Job, a Man of Heroic Endurance (Nashville: W Publishing, 2004) 161.
Recently a friend asked me this question: Should we give away our estate while we are alive or pass it on to our children.” Only days before this I had heard a story about how a large inheritance had destroyed the lives of the adult children of another wealthy couple. You’ve probably heard similar stories.
Rather than share the high probability of disaster (because too many like to gamble), I took a different angle. I reminded him that all he and his wife possess has been entrusted to them by God, and someday they will have to give an account for their stewardship. I urged them to put God’s resources to work now, so they would be ready to give an account.
For further study on this, read Luke 16:1-9. Many deem it a puzzling parable. Jesus commends the shrewd manager for using worldly wealth to make friends for himself. In the punchline of the parable, Jesus exhorts disciples to use money to make friends who will welcome them into their eternal dwellings. What’s this mean for us today?
Let us put God’s resources to work while we are alive. Let’s give them to our church, the poor, missions, etc… and someday…when we meet Jesus…we will be greeted by those whose lives were shaped by our generosity. What’s the risk if we don’t give now? We could contribute to the ruin of our children, and there won’t be much of a party to welcome us in eternity!