Planners, like me, need to plan and need a plan. On November 19, 2023, I attended worship with a friend at the Summit Church where I heard a sermon entitled, “Four Corners Giving” inspiring the plan you see in the image below and inspired by J.D. Greear’s Four Corners Giving (accessed Aug. 7, 2024.)
J.D. Greear used Leviticus. 19:9-10 as his primary text. In these verses, God instructs the Israelites not to glean their fields all the way to the corners, but to leave those corners of crops for the poor. He created a drawing similar to the one I developed, yet without any labels. In the months that followed, this image remained in my mind, and the concluding question resurfaced in my head, “How can you grow your corners (and thus shrink your circle, the part you keep for yourself?) After a fruitless search to find the sermon, I began to look for the verses he had cited without success. Finally, the Lord led me to Deuteronomy. 26:12, “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled,” There are 4 categories of people listed, and every rectangle has 4 corners! I drew my own visual, labeled each corner with a category as illustrated, and began thinking.
First, the Levites in the Old Testament were the ones handling the parts of the Tabernacle and then the Temple. The priests, Levites, handled the Word of God and proclaimed it to the people. Obviously, my church is proclaiming the Word of God. I support two organizations involved in Scripture translation and distribution. These three satisfy my passions in the Levite corner.
Next, the sojourner, by definition, is a temporary resident. Two other passions I have are evangelism and Disaster Relief. I enjoy contributing to friends going on a short-term mission trip, and to my favorite agency sending volunteers to disaster-stricken areas to alleviate suffering. On the flip side, sojourners could be refugees in my area, or the homeless. I am praying about ways to meet some of those needs.
Finally, the fatherless and the widow corners are self-explanatory, although I include single mothers in the widow’s category. The needs of these two categories are often related to hunger and food insecurity, another passion of mine. Purchasing a grocery store gift card monthly for the local orphanage helps it with purchasing perishable food items. Financial education is also one of my passions, so I found a ministry that teaches money management to single mothers. A friend of mine runs a non-profit, ministering to the needs of single mothers, and I participate with dollars and time.
As I considered each corner, I realized I was hitting my passions and planning where I wanted to give. Yet, I also wanted to leave some room for the Holy Spirit to change the plan and create some flexibility. Therefore, I added one more box to my artwork called “Holy Spirit Directed Gifts.” Yes, I still sometimes struggle to have a generous heart, but having a giving plan and setting money aside every pay period to meet the plan has helped both in giving and in budgeting to give. Another benefit of having a plan is the freedom to turn down requests not listed on the plan unless the Holy Spirit directs otherwise. Given your passions and organizations within your realm of knowledge, how would a plan like this help you to grow your corners?
