Generosity
This word won’t go away. God seems to be constantly bringing this idea up to the point we can’t shake it. It all starts about the time you get off the plane here. You quickly realize the divide between “the haves” and “the have-nots” is massive. And the numbers in the have-not camp is substantially larger than the haves. You probably already know where this is going – Yes, we are one of the haves and we now face the question everyday of how we deal with that. We have a responsibility. Jesus is pretty clear about what happens to those who ignore the have-nots. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of that equation. So, what do you do when the needs are greater than you could possibly meet? Who do you be generous to? How much is generous? Is there such thing as too generous? How do you balance the big picture with the immediate need? What about self-sustainability? I am sure it is the same where you live too; it is just seems a bit more prevalent here.
Here is something that makes things a bit weirder… Over the past few months we have met many people like us – ex-pats who have moved to Uganda to be a part of building His kingdom here. These people are great people, who have made great sacrifices to be here and are doing some pretty incredible kingdom work. But, we have also noticed a commonality among them. I know this is a blanket statement and doesn’t apply to everyone, but we have seen it time and time again and it has brought some confusion. It goes something like this: You sit down to a meal with these good people. The food is enjoyable, the conversation sweet, and then the bill comes. We split the bill and then the discussion about the tip ensues. It almost always goes like this, “Oh, don’t give anymore than $1. It isn’t expected here and if you give more you will ruin it for the other mzungu’s (white people).” You have these people who are doing amazing things in the name of Jesus during the day, then in the evening share a meal and talk about these God AWEsome things; then this happens. Whether it is how much (or little) they pay their house staff, or how far they grind down the shopkeeper with their negotiations over a $5 pair of sunglasses, something just doesn’t compute for us. I am not saying we have this figured out, but aren’t we supposed to be as generous as we possibly can? Are we just ignorant and not understanding the economics of it all? So, many questions to seek God on…
If you can’t tell, I am just typing out loud with you. We are trying to figure out how to live a generous life without giving away all of our time and money in one day and have nothing left. Or the opposite way of living, not giving away anything at all in the name of security, or “They won’t respect me if I don’t negotiate”, or, “They might use what I give them for something bad.”, or whatever other excuse we have either made or heard. So, the only thing I know is to see what scripture says. Not in some pompous, I am more spiritual than you, “Let’s look to see what Jesus has to say about this!” kind of way. But a real true, from the heart and gut, I need to know what God has to say about this because I don’t want to get this wrong. Have you read Matthew 25? Read it…Right now. Go ahead, I will wait. Isn’t that powerful and frightening? This is a significant issue for anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus.
In Philippians, Paul is thanking the church in Philippi for the gifts (money) that he has received from them. He then goes on to say that he has more than enough and he is “amply supplied” and encourages them with the truth that God will meet all of their needs. The whole of chapter four is really about provision – about God providing all we need. And if that is true, (and I don’t think I am being idealistic) then isn’t it OK to go all in and bet it all on being generous with the people around us? Do I really believe that He will provide, or do I not? I think we all want to be one of the ones God uses to meet the needs of the hurting world around us. And I am not just talking money, but also time, effort, energy, prayer and a whole host of other things. So, what will it take for us to believe what Paul is saying? What will it take for us to not just say that God will meet our needs, but really live like He will?
Living in a developing country has shown us the middle-class Jesus our culture has created. We have focused on providing for our children. We are obviously supposed to provide for them, but we have made it all about that. We think we are the ones that need to do all of the providing. It is God who does the providing, but we have a responsibility to steward it well. One friend of ours wrote this week about this very topic. He challenged us in being generous and being good stewards. (By the way, it was this friend, who in the beginning challenged us and launched us to think generously. Thanks Tommy!) His point is to be good stewards. Go ahead and pay more for fair trade coffee, because you know what your extra money goes too. He also reminded us of the value of a good bargain, so you can take the extra money you save and take care of others, particulary those we are unable to care for themselves (orphans, children, sick, etc).
Take a look at Psalm 37:25-26: I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.
I don’t know about you, but I want that to be me. I want to never be forsaken, or forgotten, I don’t want my children begging for bread, I want my children to be a blessing, and to be blessed, and those things can’t happen until I start living a righteous and generous life and trusting God to be my (our) provider. I hope you can tell we don’t have this figured out. We are struggling through what this means in our context. I do know this though, Jesus was not middle-class – He was a crazy man and I am nowhere near crazy enough.
I ran across this quote somewhere, but unfortunately I didn’t document it very well. I apologize to the author, but it is powerful so I am giving it to you unnoted: “Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood. If I would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Oh yeah, one more thing, I doubt any of the people I referred to at the beginning of this post will read this, but if you are them, and you feel your blood pressure rising, I hope this leads to some good conversations as opposed to anger and you not inviting us to dinner anymore. I know I have much to learn from you and your walk and hopefully you feel the same about us and ours.
1 comment
Awesome post Brent. We’re definitely in the HAVE category here. We’ve been discussing it a lot in our Wednesday Radical group. More specifically, we’ve been focused on how we can be more generous stewards of what the Lord has blessed us with in our respective lives. We pray for you, your family, and Cherish often. We miss y’all!
Joshua 1:9 <