The secret of giving

This weekend at Genesis, Paul Mumaw outlined the biblical tenets on giving, and I thought he did a great job. I wanted to take the next couple of days and outline some other thoughts I've had on giving.

These come from the passage in Matthew 6:1-4, if you want the text.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one of my Alma Maters, Purdue University. I love going back to see old friends and visit the places I used to hang out. But the campus has changed quite a bit, even in just the last few years.

I was part of the last class to use the old Krannert Management building. The new management students have a new gleaming monstrosity of steel, stone, and glass called Jerry S. Rawls hall. Rawls hall is really a beautiful building situated right on the Southeast end of campus that announces to visitors “You are now at Purdue.” It is solid glass on the front and opens into a sunlit three-story lobby and the name Jerry S. Rawls Hall is proudly displayed in stone on the corner near the main entrance.

During my last visit, I decided to visit Rawls hall and take the tour. I strode proudly through the three-story lobby knowing that my tuition had done it’s little share to help build this monument to higher education. Off to one side of the lobby, near the main entrance, was a giant portrait of The Man himself, Jerry S. Rawls, with his countenance cast into metal, his lips forever frozen between a smile and a grimace. Now, it turns out that Mr. Rawls is the CEO of a networking company located in silicon valley, and he paid a mere $10 million to have his name carved in stone on the building and his gigantic half-smiling face hanging in the lobby. But it turns out, he’s not alone.

When I was at Purdue as an undergrad, all the classes were held in the Physics Building, or the Mechanical Engineering Building, or the EE building, or the Chemistry Building, or the temporary creative arts huts that had been temporary since 1950. By the way, they just tore those temporary huts down last year, and do you know what they’re replacing them with? The Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. Some of the newer buildings on Purdue’s campus are the Arthur G. Hansen Life Sciences Research Building, the Holleman-Niswonger Simulator Center, the Michael Golden Engineering Laboratories, the Clayton W. DeMent Fire Station, and the Melvin Ollman Golfcart barn. All of these people, so generous in their giving, yet so public. But Jesus suggests we should “Give your Gifts in Secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:4)

So, one of the more important parts of giving is to do so in secret, for otherwise, "...you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven." (Matthew 6:1)

More on giving tomorrow.