December 1, 2015: the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving now has a new name, a new purpose. #GivingTuesday has grown over the last four years into a day to actively resist the precedent for the season otherwise set by Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
That’s right, a day to change the tone, to see the season through the light of a different necessity—what if we busted down doors to find the quickest path to generosity—to swim upstream against the current of our culture, which, finds its downstream momentum this time of year in retail sales benchmarks and in the acquisition of things (that are prone to moths and rust destroying).
What if we busted down doors to find the quickest path to generosity?
How do you actively resist on #GivingTuesday? It’s not easy. It might even feel like your setting up an outpost in the culture wars, but trust that your outpost will be a beacon of hope in the battle, an eventual stronghold that will have its place in turning the tide.
So instead of feeding yourself, feed others. Respond to the ringing bells and red tin pots. Choose the 40-inch instead of the 52, and give the difference away. Reconcile the debits in your personal ledger to credits in the ledgers of non-profits who are healing brokenness, not artificially preserving some fleeting sense of wellness.
In short, on #GivingTuesday, give it away. Give your money away, your time, give the gospel of grace. Be about sacrifice. Believe that it will matter. Believe that it will change you as much as it makes a difference to others. But you have to get ready now. You have to figure out how you’re going to navigate Friday and Monday in order to be poised for Tuesday.
Join the movement. Give it away on #GivingTuesday.