GIVING WITH STRINGS

For my birthday a few weeks ago, my wife got me a custom license plate. I think some people call them "vanity Plates". I like "custom". Anyway, I’ve noticed a lot of license plates with the Toronto Maple Leaf logo, and the Remembrance Day Poppy and the "heart".

Well, I just read about another image you can get on your license plate. Jesus. A drawing of Jesus. Too bad you can only get it if you live in Florida, but maybe someone in Ontario would have the initiatve to get the licensing office to offer drawings of Jesus. Is that cool? I know I know - Canadians aren’t as bold about their faith as Americans.

I talked about this on the air last week. When I got to my office, a listener had left an angry voicemail. (Not uncommon. Listeners often like to complain about Christian radio, especially if they’re financial supporters.) I listened to the fellow complain about how improper it is for me to have a vanity plate because I am "taking advantage of listener donations". Then he hung up.

I was so steamed I tracked down his number, phoned him up (off the air) and asked him why my personal spending bothered him. He said his money was supporting my bad spending. So since he is a donor, I asked him about taking my staff out for dinner and where he would draw the line at an acceptable level of spending. He asked me why I would do a staff dinner. I said, "well for team building and to say thank you for your extra hard work". And he said - "why would you want to do that?".

I know LIFE 100.3 is listener supported and we try to be good stewards of all the money that comes in. I guess different people view expenses differently. But one thing that really saddens me is conditional donations. When we give, we give to help, to support and show our passion.

There’s no strings, right?