Posts Tagged: generosity
“Generous-Hearted People”
PHILIPPIANS 2:4
“Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others.” (Philippians 2:4, Common English Bible)
My wife went out to a massive yard sale here in the RV resort in Sarasota. She was trying to pick up some bargains. However, there is a wrinkle: We are only going to be here a few more days, and we don’t have any room to take things back with us.
On the other hand, this is not a problem. My sweetheart isn’t buying the things for us. She is buying them to improve the unit we’re renting for the next person or persons who stay here.
That’s my wife! Frugal (hence, the yard sale), and generous. I am not always either of those two things (frugal and generous), but I’m much better than I used to be. This is thanks to the generosity and frugality modeled by many others—particularly my wife.
I was trying to think of some Bible verses that spoke of such generosity, but I was having a difficult time. So, I used a very twenty-first century approach: I googled it. And I found more verses than I can shake a big stick at. Certainly, I found plenty of them with which to do some experiments in obedience. (You may read them, along with some brief comments at the following site: https://www.womansday.com/life/inspirational-stories/g30539201/bible-verses-helping-others/, accessed 02-19-2022).
Take the one that leads off this post, Philippians 2:4. Paul reminds the Christ-followers in Philippi that one aspect of following Christ is generosity. I suspect that the Philippians needed to be reminded of this because they were becoming a bit selfish. Christians don’t have the selfishness market cornered, but we’re not immune to selfishness either.
This post, in fact, is a small step by me to be more generous. I haven’t been posting much of late. Sorry about that. I realize that some of you might not only enjoy these posts; you might even benefit from them.
So, here you are! You can thank my wife for her yard-saling-for-others approach to generosity. Generosity begets generosity.
How will you choose to be generous to someone before this day is done?
“And the Word for the Year: Generosity!”
Several years ago, I read a post by Jon Gordon that encouraged his readers to choose one word for the year to set the tone for the year. I have been doing this for several years now. The past two yearly words have been self-control and holiness. I can’t say that I have done well with them, but I still think that Gordon is onto something good.
This year, my word is generosity. This word, as I perceive it, is not just about money or stuff. And generosity is not only about giving to others. Rather, generosity is about giving and receiving. It is about giving material things and giving lots of other things that could hardly be called stuff.
Generosity is something that many of us have received. In fact, no matter how difficult life is (and it is so for many people), there are very few of us who haven’t experienced receiving generosity at one time or another. Some of us, like me, are swimming in a sea of generosity. I have received generosity from my parents, friends, twelve-step compatriots, my wife, family, and a host of others. Even if I didn’t believe in God, I think I would have to believe in generosity.
But I do believe in God, and I have experienced so much generosity from God! Forgiveness, grace, life, life eternal, spiritual gifts of service, the sending of his Son to this planet, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the church—and on and on and on. Yes, I’ve received generosity alright!
And then, there is the giving of generosity. If I have received so much generosity of all kinds, material and spiritual, how could I not be generous?
But the truth is, I can be incredibly selfish. I’m more generous, I think, than I used to be, but as Robert Frost said, “I have miles before I sleep.” Generosity is always a possibility, but it only becomes lived reality in the living itself.
So, this is the Year of Generosity. My intention is to be a generous person in a plethora of ways. (I just love the word “plethora”!) I plan to be generous with stuff—even including my books. I will be generous with my time, with my praise and gratitude, with words of encouragement. I will be generous with my sweetheart, my students, my church, people that I like, and people of whom I am not so fond.
I’m even planning to be generous with myself. Can you believe it?! I do!
(For another post on generosity, see my post “Brimming with Wealth and Generosity” at https://www.downtoearthbeliever.com/?p=1723.)
“Contagious Compassion”
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
I read a wonderful transcript yesterday on the NPR website. It was a story about anger, and how contagious it is. It was also a story about contagious compassion. (You can read and/or listen to the story at https://wysu.org/content/npr/anger-can-be-contagious-heres-how-stop-spread, accessed 02-26-2019.)
It seems that a gentleman by the name of Michael Beatty was angry with a comedian/actor named Patton Oswalt. It seems that Oswalt had tweeted something negative about President Trump. So, Beatty sent two harsh tweets to and about Oswalt.
Oswalt joked back with Beatty, but Oswalt did something else: He scrolled through Beatty’s twitter feed. Oswalt found out that Beatty had some heavy-duty medical bills. So, Oswalt sent a check for $2,000 to Beatty’s GoFundMe campaign, and encouraged his followers to do the same.
It isn’t just that people sent money or encouraging notes to Beatty. This whole incident caused him to take a hard look at himself. That was good and helpful. But something else happened as well. Beatty says that is becoming a better, less angry person.
I think that I became a slightly better person, just by reading the transcript. Like Mr. Beatty, I sometimes am a very angry person. Like Mr. Beatty, I frequently smart off. Like Mr. Beatty, I am touched and humbled and changed by the generosity of others.
The Bible speaks of overcoming evil with good. It speaks of doing good, even to those who have done us evil. It says that we are to bless those who curse us. You can google it to find out the references. I assure you, these things really are in the Bible.
But the question that often feels like a splinter in my mind is this: Do I in fact practice these virtues? Yes, I know that these things are in the Bible, but are they in me? Am I overcoming evil with good? Do I do good to others, no matter what? Do I bless even those who curse me?
And the answer is, yes, I do . . . sometimes. Sometimes needs to become more often than not. Indeed, I hope that at some point, in time or in eternity, contagious compassion will consume me. Only when it does will I be truly alive and truly myself.
“DOING AWAY WITH MYSELF”
DTEB, “DOING AWAY WITH MYSELF”
“A man who is wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.” (Source unknown)
“Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows, they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, The Big Book, p. 62, italics mine)
I like to think of myself as a fairly generous, compassionate person. Today, before worship even began, I realized that everything I had ever done or wanted to do that was good has been about me.
The worship music spoke of what God had done for us in Christ. It was wonderful music, but I couldn’t sing much. I was too busy trying to hold back the tears. I hoped to hear something encouraging in the sermon. I didn’t. The pastor talked about compassion. Talking about compassion to a person who just realized his own core selfishness is like pouring water on a drowning man.
At the end of the worship service, there was an invitation to come forward for prayer. I wanted to, but felt that I was just too far gone in my selfishness. I felt so lost in myself.
However, afterwards I found one of the elders at the church with whom I have a good relationship, broke down crying, and asked him to pray for me. (Nothing wrong with the rest of our elders; I just know Gary better.)
My first generous act was to give away my “secret” (??) about being so selfish. Hey, feeble generosity is better than no generosity at all.
And afterwards, I felt so much better. I also felt that, perhaps, even though everything I had ever done had been tainted by my me-ness, there had been some genuine generosity in some of it. The seeds—or at least the desire—had been there in me all along. But the ground was too frozen or too hard for the seeds to germinate.
However, spring is here, no matter how much it may look or feel like winter. Time to break up the soil a bit. Time to tend the seeds. Time to begin to harvest generosity.
I can’t do away with myself, but I can allow my generous God to do something with me! I have repeatedly shown myself incapable of whole-hearted generosity. However, with God, all things are possible. Not easy. Just possible.
I grew up on a two-hundred-acre farm in Adams County. We had a huge garden. One year, there wasn’t much (if any) rain, and the ground was very hard and crusty. The lima beans weren’t able to push their way through the hard soil. My dad bent down and began carefully scraping off the crust, allowing the lima beans to pop up.
I have a Heavenly Father, too. He doesn’t really want to do away with me. He doesn’t want me to do away with myself.
What does He want?
He wants me to allow Him to scrape away my hard, crusty soil. He wants to allow the seeds of generosity to germinate and grow.
He wants that for all of us.
GOD AND SMALL BOYS WILL PROVIDE
“Do you think God is just going to give us buckets of money?”
The above question was posed to me by frugal, hard-working, worried wife.
My wife and I were talking about her admittedly very stressful job, and when she should retire. Retirement is coming soon, but not nearly soon enough. I’m afraid that the decision is nearly as stressful as the job. (No, it probably isn’t! But it is stressful.)
I tend to say that I think God will take care of us, no matter what.
Note carefully how I expressed my “sort-of” faith in the preceding sentence: I tend to say that I think God will take care of us, no matter what. Most of the time, I struggle to trust God, but I talk a good game.
We decided to go to the Cincinnati Nature Center. We have a membership there. Affordable fun, if not cheap thrills. I’m not sure we were prepared to meet God there, but apparently God was prepared to meet us.
As we prepared to walk down to the lake, we passed a dispenser of fish-and-turtle-food pellets. My wife asked if we should buy some. “No,” I said, rather grumpily, “it costs a quarter.”
It was a hot, humid Saturday afternoon, and there weren’t a lot of people there. However, as we walked on the boardwalk around the lake, there was a lady and a little boy—about four years old, I would guess. The little boy had a brown paper bag. The little guy reached into the bag, came over to us, and handed my wife and I one fish-and-turtle-food pellet a piece.
My wife and I were blown away by the little guy’s generosity and thoughtfulness. A few minutes later, he gave us some more pellets. This time, we each had about five pellets to throw in the water for the fish and turtles!
Angels come in all shapes and sizes. A four-year-old boy was a messenger of God to my wife and me today. There were no buckets of money from on high, but a few graciously given food pellets helped us to turn our attitudes around, at least for a little while.
I hope that you (and I) will be on the lookout for God’s messengers today. They come bearing good gifts from the Father of lights.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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