Latest / Prayer Before Work / Everyone's Donating. You're Not. Now What? - Prayer Before Work
Transcript
- Sean Graver: Well, the workplace giving campaign email just landed in your inbox again. And this year, the chosen organization is one you can't get behind. Maybe it's because of its position on abortion or assisted suicide or something else that runs against what you believe. Well, hey, this is Sean, and welcome back to Prayer Before Work. Now, everyone around you seems to be clicking through and donating without a second thought, and now you're stuck. Do you say something and risk being the difficult one? Do you just go along with it to avoid the conversation? Or do you just opt out without a word and hope nobody notices? Well, the apostle Paul gives some helpful guidance here, even though he's talking about giving to the church in Corinth, not a workplace campaign. But he writes in Second Corinthians chapter nine that each one must give as he has decided in his heart. Not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. So two things stand out. giving is supposed to come from your own decision, not from pressure to match what everyone else around you is doing. And it's not supposed to be under compulsion. Now there was a time when I worked for a large regional bank that would track this. And if you didn't sign up for automatic donations from your paycheck, you were Pulled aside for a meeting to help you decide. Now, if you're giving somewhere just because you're afraid of what people will think if you don't, that's compulsion. Even if nobody's technically forcing you. You don't have to make a scene out of this, though. You're allowed to step back from a specific campaign without turning it into a debate with your coworkers. If someone asks why, a simple, honest answer works fine. I give to some other causes that matter to me instead. You don't owe anyone a full explanation of your convictions to justify not funding something you disagree with. And here's the other side of it. If you want to give, give somewhere that actually reflects what you believe. Redirect that generosity towards something you can support with a clear conscience. Because your conscience matters more than fitting in with the office campaign. And you can honor it without making enemies over it. So let's pray. God, we want to be generous, but we don't want to be pressured into funding something that goes against what we believe just to avoid an awkward conversation. Will you give us the clarity to know where we can give freely and the courage to decline when where we can't? without turning this into a fight. Help us to hold our convictions with grace instead of either compromising them or being harsh about them. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go make today count.