A Big Cheque..!
It was a photograph in a daily that made me wince today; a big cheque, nearly two feet long by a foot wide, handed over by an actor to the father of a sick child. I’m sure if they could have made the cheque bigger they would have, if they could have had brighter spotlights and got photo in all the dailies they would have done that also.
It was a big cheque with big publicity.
Why? I asked myself do we need to make ‘giving’ such a public event?
Can’t we do charity quietly?
Don’t we realise that in the very glare of the camera the act of charity is not charity anymore: That the whole act is a publicity gimmick?
After the great Chicago fire of 1871, D.L. Moody went to New York to solicit funds for its victims. When he arrived in the big city he was introduced to a wealthy man who was reported to be very generous. Impressed by the great need in Chicago, the man gave Moody a cheque for a large sum of money.
He then directed Moody to several other men in the area who also gave large contributions. When Mr Moody was about to leave, he shook the benefactors hand and made this his parting comment. “If you ever come to Chicago, be sure to call on me. I’d like to tell the people of Chicago who you are and what you have done for them.”
“Mr Moody,’ said the man, “Don’t ever wait for me to come for I don’t ever want you to tell them who I am, tell them to return the favour to anyone who is in need.”
That man was the kind of giver who pleases God. Moved by the needs of others, he willingly gave of his means to alleviate suffering. He didn’t give to gain attention or to satisfy his ego.”
He gave for the love of giving.
And that should be our only reason to give.
Let us stop this new hypocrisy of these huge cut out cheques, spotlights and photographers and let us quietly give to those who need.
Why is it we crave publicity when we give? Because we are afraid that without the glare of lights the whole thing is a bad investment?
What about an experiment?
Start giving without publicity. Quietly, without telling even your spouse. Just give and give generously. Don’t expect anything in return. Just give because your heart is in the act.
Then watch.
You will be blessed a hundred, nay a thousand times more than you have given. Go on try it out, and watch as a God above showers his giving on you..!
Please do give your response to this article in the ‘comments’ section below
Dear Bob,
This is so very true and biblical. Only on one occassion God has said give and it shall be given to you full measure, shaken, pressed down, running over in to your bossom. That is the kind of blessing one gets when we give to the needs of people who are in need. Also the word says don’t let your left hand know what your right hand gives so that only the Father in heaven sees what is given so that he can bless openly. Also when we give to the poor we are only lending to God, who is not indebted to us but gives us back 100 times or even 1000 times back to us. I am only expressing my personal exprience.
Thanks,
guess,the same applies to all those “celebreties” visiting and spending time at NGO’s.
All of it is a PR campaign..
Often I get the opportunity to read your column through your website. Mostly they are wonderful and sometimes, they are dull, too. This one is sharp and enlightening.. not only to big people who pose with a big cheques, but also to ordinary people like me who occasionally attempt in simple ways to help people in needs.
Come on Bob! You should understand. There was no intention of charity. No celebrity ever has. Do you really think that the celebrities who will make a show of Satyagraha when the unauthorized slums are being demolished will ever donate even one of them a place to live? It is all a show for publicity. Just imagine a middle class person buying a flat spending all his hard earned savings and after some 10 years suddenly finds the authorities declaring the building unauthorized. Which celebrity ever stood for them? He has been really wronged isn’t he? Though the construction was unauthorized, the builder has sold it. The government has charged him the stamp duty, has been collecting property tax for so many years. But the one who suffers is the common man. Will it not be simple to just add a document to say that construction is legal without which no sale can take place?
But he has nobody to stand by him. However the slum mafia will get every celebrity to fight for them.
U HAVE STOLEN IT FROM MY HEART.
ART OF LIVING IS ART OF LOVING
ART OF LOVING IS ART OF GIVING
ART OF GIVING IS GIVING WITHOUT ANY EXPECTATION
IN A MANNER THAT WHEN THE RIGHT HAND GIVES
EVEN THE LEFT HAND DOES NOT KNOW.
THIS IS OUR SANSKRITI(CULTURE)
ALL ELSE IS VIKRUTI (twisted perversion)
The headline is so powerful that you cannot imagine-it brought tears.