Give them hope

On a recent fundraising trip, I noticed a recurring theme among those I met with: hopelessness.

"I can't believe that the supreme court allows _________..."

"My kids aren't walking with the Lord anymore..."

"My siblings/parents/coworkers/friends refuse to accept Jesus..."

"It's been so hard to change ____________ at my church..."

"I feel like no one understands what we're going through..."

Each of those statements - and dozens more I heard - come from hearts wrought with hopelessness.  In the midst of such pain, it's really hard to see clearly.  It's hard to reach beyond the hopelessness.  It's hard to remember that above the dark storm we're experiencing is a beautiful, sun-drenched cloudscape.

This is where you, the fundraiser, come in.

We often think of ourselves as beggars, but in truth, we are givers.  Wherever we go, we freely give the fantastic news that even though the world is ruled by the prince of the power of the air and that rebellious sinners have a great deal of authority, God is not worried.  He has absolute power over Satan and all demons.  He sets up kings and removes kings.  He is unfazed at the defiance of the most rebellious of sinners.  Indeed, He is at work in the world winning those very sinners to Himself.

Consider how David expresses his hope in Psalm 3:

O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul,
"there is no salvation for him in God!"        Selah
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill.       Selah
I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
                                         Psalm 3:1-6, ESV

Friends, like David, we are hope-bearers.  We proclaim that no matter how many foes rise up against us, there IS salvation for us in God!  He is our shield when we're under attack.  He is our glory when our country's glory is fading.  He lifts our heads when they are weighed down by discouragement and despair.  He sustains us when sleep robs us of our self-awareness and self-protectiveness.  Though thousands are against us, those who are with us are more than those who are with them. (2 Kings 6:16)

As I heard each fear and understood each hopeless phrase while on my recent trip, I purposefully sought to lift my friends' eyes above the clouds.  I told them about lives transformed by Jesus.  I took them to Scripture that shared of God being with us in the midst of despair.  I shared about how dark Good Friday was... but how beautiful Easter Sunday became.

Fellow fundraiser, you are spending these difficult days raising money in order to give the world hope.  Don't be fooled into thinking that that mission doesn't begin until you're at 100% of your support goal; it starts right now!  It is your great privilege to lift your donors' eyes above the clouds.

Give them hope!

Watching the numbers

Most blogs, including this one, have a reporting feature that allows you to see how many people have viewed any particular post and when they did so. It can be a useful tool for determining which topics are resonating with your audience and which aren't.

These reports can tend to produce a rather euphoric condition when some posts get significantly more web traffic than average, but the opposite is also true: if there are less page views than normal, it can be a temptation to want to throw in the towel altogether.

Watching your ministry "fund balance" is similar. For many fundraisers, there is one or perhaps a few times each year when your fund balance begins to climb. (This is often around the end of the year, but it may also happen when annual donors send in gifts.) It seems like much of the year, however, the trend is generally downward.

This may be a sign that you need to raise additional support. It may mean that you have delinquent donors to follow up with. Or it may just be that most of your funding comes in spurts, so naturally the rest of the year tends to trend downward. (All three of those things are true of me right now!)

Rather than thinking rationally about those possibilities, however, I usually just react emotionally the moment I see the latest report. If my fund balance is heading upward at that moment, I'm tempted to put my feet up and stop fundraising altogether. "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry!" (Luke 12:19) If it's trending downward, however, I immediately assume that the world is ending. The trajectory will no doubt continue to plummet and I'll end up living in a cardboard box. I'll say to myself, "God has surely forsaken me! Woe, woe to me! I'm going to go from zero to box in 2.7 weeks! All is lost!"

But maybe you're holier than I am. If so, you can move on with your day now. If you ride the same emotional roller-coaster I do, however, let's look together at three Biblical truths that can help us:

You'll never have enough

Billionaire John D. Rockefeller was once asked, "How much money is enough?" He responded, "Just one dollar more." How true! How many page views would truly satisfy me? At what point would I know I had enough funding? Even if I had a truly viral post or received a $1M gift, I'd still keep looking to the next one because the results wouldn't last.

The truth is that deep within all of us is a God-given longing for something more. The question to ask ourselves is, what is that something? Unless your answer is "Jesus Christ", you'll always be left unsatisfied. You'll never have enough.

God loves the rebound

I don't claim to understand this completely, but God loves the rebound. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's turning an upward trend downward or turning a downward trend upward - the Bible is full of God doing both.

Perhaps it's because God is so opposed to the proud but so gracious to the humble (James 4:6) that He causes the strong to be brought low. Perhaps it's because He is glorified when weak men demonstrate His power (1 Cor 1:26-2:5). Perhaps it's because our favorite Bible stories are of the very low skyrocketing to fame, like the armor-less shepherd slaying the giant with a stone or of the unarmed slaves escaping countless Egyptian chariots through a wall of water. Whatever the reason, God loves turning things around. So it shouldn't surprise us when He rebounds our blogging influence or our financial security.

Your value is not in the numbers

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) Did you catch that? Jesus emphasizes that the flock was not large but the reward could not be greater. God does not give proportionally as we might expect. That's because our value is not in what we have or what we create or even how many of us there are. Our worth is in His sovereign choice to love us. He decided this before we had anything at all - yes, before we were even born.

The impact of this blog and the state of my fundraising is already known to the Lord and He will accomplish exactly what He wants in exactly the way He wants at exactly the time He wants.  My degree of euphoria or depression as a result of watching the numbers while this take place makes no difference whatsoever.


These are wonderful truths worth considering regularly. May we all have a response of faith to trust in Him next time we see our reports, regardless of which direction they're trending.

Unless this blog entry doesn't go viral. Then I'll throw in the towel ;)

The End of Yourself

There are many things in life that can bring you to the end of yourself.

A terrible boss. Chronic health issues. Long bouts of depression. A failing marriage. A rebellious child. Ongoing addictions. Relentless sin struggles. Deep loneliness. And, of course, fundraising.

If even one of these is weighing on you, you might find yourself struggling to get out of bed in the morning. If two or more are affecting you, you may come to believe that you just can't do it anymore.

Your heart will cry out for relief. Your mind, in those rare occasions where you can think clearly, will be racing to come up with a way to escape. As option after option falls away, you are overcome with despair and cry out even more. It's a deeply painful downward spiral.

If you've never felt that way, just wait - so long as you live long enough, you will.

Yet there is hope. Not wishful thinking hope. Not "it'll all work out" romantic-comedy hope. Not even "God works all things together for good so chin up!" hope. This better hope lies before you, clear as day, but it requires making a choice.

The path you've been walking down thus far has not offered any options. You don't want to be on this road, but you've had little control over the things that have brought you to this point. Yet before you lies a fork in the road with two paths to choose from.

The first path is marked, "The End of Yourself". That path leads to you giving in. It means quitting your job. Or refusing to leave your bed. It means getting a divorce or abandoning your family. It results in offering yourself to your addictions and embracing your sin. It could mean giving up on the fundraising you've worked so hard at. Regardless of what it looks like, that path leads to you making your last stand. You will take control of something. It is the worst of all scenarios, but at least you had some say in it.

But there is another path. Strangely, it too is marked, "The End of Yourself", and it too leads to you giving in. You can't see as far down the path, so the details are hazy, but what is clear is that despair has no place there. Yes, you see pain, as it is obviously not an easy path, and it seems that you may or may not actually quit your job or get healthy or have an easy marriage or finish fundraising. But there are others there and they seem okay. Your addictions will still pull at you along the way and sin will gain a foothold more often than you'd like or expect, but it will never win. This path is not pretty, but it is infinitely better than the first path.

Consider now the words of the Apostle Paul, a man intimately familiar with the second path:

For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:11-13 ESV)

Paul tells us that down that second path is where we'll discover the gospel. Those who run down either path will shout together, "I can do all things!" But only those heading down the second path will finish with, "through him, my Savior, my God, who strengthens me!"

The gospel tells us that while we were yet sinners, dead in our transgressions and sins, being altogether foolish, disobedient and deceived slaves, Jesus died for us (Rom 5:8, Eph 2:1, Titus 3:3). When we were at our absolute worst, without any hope in the world, God Himself came and rescued us. Nor was this just a once and done rescue - Jesus is still working that same power in the lives of all those who put their trust in Him.

That power is the hope our hearts are crying for. It's a reminder that Jesus came at our most desperate moment and it's a reminder that He has never left our side. He will be there again at our next most desperate moment, as well as the one after that and the one after that. Each time it will require coming to the end of yourself, but you find discover that you can do all things through Him who strengthens you.

Some day you will come to the end of yourself, but remember that it is not the end of the journey. In fact, it could be just the beginning.

Crouching at your door

I probably don't have to tell you that fundraising is hard work. Not only is it hard work, but the wages aren't always satisfying. Yes, there are times when you work hard and are rewarded with a $100/mo donor, a great networking opportunity or maybe some words of encouragement. But there are also times when your "reward" is (or at least appears to be) disinterest, rejection, misunderstanding or even threats.

When that latter "reward" comes our way, it's very easy to start wallowing in self-pity, stoking angry thoughts and entertaining envious daydreams.  Few of us would call such a state of mind "good", but we may easily miss that such thoughts are downright dangerous.

In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (Genesis 4:3-7 ESV)

Here we see that Abel's hard work was rewarded as he had hoped, but Cain's hard work was not. His heart moved quickly down a dark path - a journey not unnoticed by the Lord. So God reassures him that all is not lost - He will still be accepted if he does well. But God also issues a strong warning: Sin, like a ferocious lion, is crouching at Cain's door, hungry and poised to devour him. Tragically, Cain does not heed this warning but rather gives full vent to his rage at Abel's expense.

In the course of fundraising, especially in the times of great disappointment, you will find yourself in Cain's position. Sin will be crouching at your door, and its desire will be for you. Failing to rule over it may not result in murder, but there are many other wild beasts that are crouching there. They may take the form of sexual sin, alcohol or substance abuse, retreating into a world of distraction and escapism, workaholism, retail therapy, overeating, cutting, gossip, or any number of false gods that promise deliverance but instead destroy you*. (By the way, if you read over that list and find yourself in shock that Christians could struggle with that stuff, I suggest that you ask yourself why your Christian friends aren't being honest with you... and perhaps why you're not being honest with yourself.)

The image God presents is that this Beast called Sin is just outside the door, ready to pounce. But it can't get in unless we open the door. That sounds simple enough, but if you're like me, once you crack that door open for the first time (likely many years ago), it's very hard to close it - especially while the Beast is tearing you to shreds moment by moment.

So is there any hope for those who have already opened that door? Can we rule over sin?

"O death, where is your victory?
 O death, where is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin . . . but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ESV)

Yes, we can rule over sin - but only with divine help! The victory is ours - through Jesus Christ! In Him even death is powerless. Though formerly we were slaves to sin, readily sacrificing ourselves to the Beast at the door, we need never return to that place. We are free to run to another master - and Jesus has shown Himself to be the best Master. When confronted with His grace and mercy, we are left speechless, marveling that our false gods ever appealed to us.

As holy sinners still being sanctified, we'll undoubtedly find ourselves with Cain's thoughts once again. When that happens, Sin will still be waiting at the door - yet we needn't fear it any longer. The gospel has left that Beast declawed and without fangs. It won't give up easily, though; it will still cry out with fearful shouts, trying desperately to destroy us with shame-laden reminders of who we once were.

When that happens, run to your Savior. He was dead but was resurrected to defeat death forever. The Beast is dying too - but will never rise again.

--------------------
* If you find yourself struggling with persistent sins, don't try to go it alone. Get help! Here are some online resources you may find useful:

• CCEF: Life-giving, gospel-driven tools for counselors and counselees.
• Desiring God: Few resources better capture the majesty and wonder of Christ.
• The Relentless Fight: Encouraging, empowering, and equipping Christians for the great fight of faith.
• Harvest USA: Proclaiming Christ as Lord to a Sexually Broken World.
• Escaping Escapism: Finding true refuge in Jesus

The slippery slope

Right now I'm in a period of trying to raise some additional funds.  We don't need a whole lot more, but it's enough where I can't just hope that a few people will randomly increase and we'll be done.  (Is that ever the case, really?)

Because we don't have a lot to raise, I've generally felt pretty happy about the state of our fundraising.  I made some plans to raise the extra I needed, but I wasn't stressing about it at all.  Everything seemed just fine!

Until about three weeks ago.

In rapid-fire succession, one donor lost her job and dropped $100/mo.  Another donor told us that he felt called to assist a friend going out onto the missions field and is transferring support there.  Another donor had a family crisis and will likely be dropping in the near future.

Suddenly I felt as if I were on a very slippery slope.  What if others also drop?  How much more am I going to have to raise?  Is this the beginning of the end?  Should I polish up my resume?

Sound overly dramatic?  It is.  But it's what goes through my mind whenever that kinda thing happens.

The truth is that I was indeed on a slippery slope, but the slippery slope wasn't that of money.  It was that I was trusting in the money rather than the Lord.  Somewhere along the line I'd gone from depending on Him for every dollar coming in to assuming I had it all under control.  "Thanks for that initial boost, Jesus, but I can take it from here.  You might want to go check out some of those other fundraisers who still need You, though."  I'd never actually say that, but it was how I was acting.  I maybe even fooled myself into thinking that I was still depending on Him, but I wasn't fooling Him.

And so I consider this drop in support as an act of mercy.  That's because I need a regular reminder that He's saved me from the most slippery of all slopes.  The book of Titus says it well:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7 ESV, emphasis mine)

I tend to think about the words "save" and "savior" too lightly.  I easily forget what the words mean because I don't often feel like I need to be saved from anything.  But if you've ever been sliding down a truly slippery slope, falling with no hope of stopping until you smash into something at the bottom, the words take on fresh meaning.  And that's what it sounds like in the passage above.  We were so totally far gone, beyond hope, foolishly and disobediently flying head-first down the slope to hell - and all the while we were led astray such that we didn't even know there was a problem.

It's off that slippery slope that God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Savior, saved us.  Jesus did this willingly by sacrificing Himself for you, for me, and for all those He's going to use us to reach as a result of our fundraising.

So let's remember that slippery slope He's pulled us from.  In comparison, these dips in support aren't that big of a deal.  Rather, consider them a gracious means by which He is reminding us to cling more tightly to Him than to our support levels.  If He's saved us from the most slippery of all slopes, He'll certainly help us out through every other slope we'll encounter (Romans 8:32).