Generous With Our Giving
Well, this call to generous living that Derek is sharing on has been challenging, inspiring. So back to him for another one. Thanks, Derek.
I want to talk today about being generous with our giving, and I can just hear everybody taking a deep breath!
Billy Graham once said we receive with our left hand and we give with our right hand.
Generous Giving
Someone told a story when he was a teenager. He and his father were stood in a queue at a circus and as they waited, the family immediately in front of them noticed that parents had eight children in tow and all well behaved, probably under the age of 12, based on their clean, simple clothing, suspected they didn't have a lot of money.
The kids were excited and as they approached the counter, the attendant asked how many tickets they wanted and the man proudly responded, "Please give me eight children's tickets and two adults." When the attendant quoted the price, the man's wife let go of his hand and her head drooped. The man leaned a little closer and said, "How much?" The attendant replied, told him the price. The man obviously didn't have enough money. He looked crushed.
The person who tells the story said there was a man standing behind him and that man put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a R200 note and dropped it on the ground and then reached down, picked up the bill and tapped the man on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, Sir. This fell out of your pocket."
That man knew exactly what was going on. He looked straight into the man's eyes, took his hand, shook it, and with tears streaming down his cheeks, replied, "Thank you, thank you, Sir. That really means a lot to me and my family." And the man who had given that man the R200 went back to his car and drove home because he didn't have enough money for the circus that night. But it didn't matter because they'd put themselves in a place of others.
The Heart of Giving
That's generosity, folks. The attitude that needs to guide our giving, I guess, because God has blessed us with so much. He's been so good to us that giving shouldn't even be a question. It should just flow from us naturally and generously.
It's all about giving—giving of our time, our talents, our energy, and our wealth. How generous are we with our giving?
