Roadblocks to Generosity—Part 2

A very young man has helped me to learn a lot about myself and my motives for generosity. His name is Jasper and he’s fifteen months old. You might wonder what a boy that age could teach a sixty year old man. He can’t say more than a few words (at least that Grampy can understand), he really started to walk just a little while ago. But what lessons I have learned from him!

Jasper lives about 400 miles from us, so we can’t just “drop over” to visit him and his parents. We need to plan our schedule well in advance, because all of us are busy. The travel means two days of driving or a flight and rental car. Because our son and daughter-in-law’s home is small, we need to get a hotel room. And of course we like to treat them to a meal as an expression of gratitude for their hospitality and rearranging their schedule to accommodate us. Believe me, I ‘m not complaining. I’m explaining how it is.

The reality is that we love to go and spend time with Jasper (and his mom and dad). Other things take a lower priority because we would rather be with Jasper than those take those other options. We don’t buy him a lot of things. Judy loves to get him books or cuddly animals. Birthday and Christmas is more likely a gift for his savings and education than toys or clothes. All of that is simply an expression of one thing—we love this little guy to pieces! And he returns the favor. He plays peek-a-boo, sits on our lap while we read his books, gives us big hugs, and smiles a smile that melts stone.

The lesson we have learned is that love is the greatest motivator we have ever experienced. Even though some expense and inconvenience may be involved, they are really insignificant compared to the love and joy that we receive in return.

So here’s the lesson I have learned: When we are full of love, we give joyfully and are grateful for the opportunity to give ourselves to the one we love. The financial resources and time invested are rewarded many times over because we have been with someone we love and who loves us in return. When we apply this same principle to our relationship with God, the results are the similar, yet eternal. Because we love God, we want to show Him our love, bless Him, delight His heart, and just spend time with Him.

Generosity flows from a heart filled with love. It’s not just money or possessions that are reflected in our generosity, but our time, energy, talent, love, passion, and truly all that we are or have. Since it all belongs to God anyway, sharing it with Him becomes a delight, not a burden or obligation.

So, where is your heart? What holds you back? What is most important in your life? Answering those questions will help remove roadblocks to living a generous, joy-filled life.

Roadblocks to Generosity—Part 1

Americans consider themselves to be the most generous people in the world. Look at the amount we give annually to a wide variety of charities (churches, ministries, hospitals, colleges, libraries, etc). In 2007, that amount exceeded $300 billion US, including our response to disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, and other calamities. But how do we measure our generosity?

As followers of Jesus, the appropriate measurement is to apply the biblical standard. The long accepted standard of giving among Christians has been the tithe. There is certainly much debate over this issue, citing law vs. grace arguments, legalism and salvation by works, and more angles than we can discuss here. If we start our discussion by considering Genesis 14:20, we find Abram gives a tithe (the word clearly means a tenth) of the spoils of his conquest to Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. Abram gave his offering freely with no demand made on him by Melchizedek or others. So we see the tithe as an appropriate gift to God even before the law was given to Moses. Later, the law was very specific about what was to be given to God and how property, possessions, and money were to be handled by the Israelites.

If we fast-forward to the Gospels, Jesus criticizes a Pharisee for his prayer that boasts of his attention to the tithe, while commending the tax collector who simply said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:10-14) While we find no commendation of tithing in the New Testament, we continue to see one principle at work: generosity. Jesus commended the widow who gave all her money into the treasury at the Temple (Mark 12:41-44) and Paul uses the generosity of the Macedonians to challenge the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge to help the church in Jerusalem. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5) The rich fool loses his life because he refused to be “rich toward God” in Jesus’ parable (Luke 12:15-22).

For the purpose of this conversation, let’s agree that Christians are to give ten per cent of our income, Americans in general give 1.67% of their income to charity. Church members give 2.6%, primarily to their church as well as mission and para-church organizations. Emptytomb.org reports that $5.2 billion was given to overseas ministries in 2005 (see Mission Expenditures). According to the same report, $168 billion would have been added to the amount of money available for ministry at home and abroad. Why is there such a disparity between what we are called to do and our actions?

In future posts of Living Generously, I’ll talk about what I see as some of the causes of this shortfall and, hopefully, some sound steps to improve our lives by putting our trust in God to meet our needs, rather in the things we see around us.

Thanks for reading. Please give me your comments, since I know that I’m not the final authority on this topic at all. Let’s learn together as we will develop meaningful ministry approaches to help people fulfill their calling as stewards in God’s Kingdom.

 

 

 

Deferred Generosity

We normally think of generosity as giving financially. We can also be generous with our time, spiritual gifts, love, and friendship. There is also an opportunity for “deferred generosity.” It’s surprising how few people plan to give significantly to their church or other ministries in their will or trust. Frankly, it’s even more surprising that nearly two-thirds of Americans (including Christians) don’t have a will or trust. I strongly affirm generous giving while we are alive, but often, the single largest act of generosity will be after our “graduation” to be with Jesus.

Since life expectancy for Americans is greater than ever, it’s natural to be concerned that we might “outlive” our money. We have learned from the debates on health care and medical reform that the greatest medical expenses generally occur in the last few months (or years) of life. We want to be assured that we will be properly cared for and that our surviving spouse will live well after our death. When we have addressed those matters appropriately, we can arrange to leave the remainder of our resources to our heirs and charities.

The best way to assure that our wishes are followed and our survivors are cared for is to have a will or trust drawn by a competent professional. An experienced attorney or trust officer will work with us to learn how we want to distribute our property following our death, as well as to provide for minor children. In most cases, everything goes to the surviving spouse and is distributed following that spouse’s death. The advisor will help us think through our wishes for “end-of-life” circumstances, like resuscitation, life support efforts, and other matter we tend to avoid discussing. Pre-planning these matters greatly assists family members as well as medical personnel in knowing how to act when death approaches.

Michael Jackson’s death reminds us that death can come at any time, regardless of wealth, fame, good health, or other circumstances. It appears that Michael’s will and trust will greatly simplify handling a very complex estate. While most estates are much smaller than Jackson’s, proper preparation will greatly assist our heirs in settling our estate, including care of our dependent children, donations to charity, as well as distribution of assets to our heirs.

Another benefit of having an estate plan, including a will or trust, is that there are vehicles that provide lifetime income, a tax deduction in certain cases, and leave a gift to heirs or charity. We’ll talk more about that in another (much later) post. We must also decide whether a will or a trust is the appropriate format for our situation. A will must be probated, which can take many years and consume much of the estate. In most cases, a trust avoids probate and delivers more resources to our heirs and charities. If we don’t have a will or trust, our estate will most likely go through probate anyway. Some initiative and planning now will help our survivors when they are grieving. It will also allow us to be as generous after death as we were in life. In fact, gifts given after our death may outlive our heirs and glorify God for generations.

We want to be generous every day of our lives. We can also be a blessing to charities and our heirs by practicing “deferred generosity” as well.

Note: I am not an attorney. This post isn’t intended as legal advice—simply one person’s advice to his friends.

Have a Wonderful Life

Welcome to my first Living Generously blog post. I hope that can offer some meaningful insights, ideas, and conversation on the topics of generosity, personal finance, budgeting, giving, and the economy. I don’t claim to be an expert in any of these areas, but I know those who are. I will refer you to their websites and materials often, since there is such a vast amount of material available in many forms. I also look forward to your comments so that we can learn together how to use the resources that God has entrusted to us for His glory and the benefit of His body.
I often wonder what a church or community filled with generous people would look like. If each of <us>  should look not only to <our> own interests, but to the interests of others, what would the world be like (Philippians 2:4)? Truly generous people don’t just give money. They first of all give themselves to God, then to other people (see 2 Corinthians 8:1-5). One reason a person can be generous is that, recognizing everything actually belongs to God (Psalm 24:1), he or she doesn’t cling to possessions as though they will never receive anything else. In fact, generous people intentionally build a “margin” into their lives so that there is always something to give. They don’t have the need to spend all they have—or more than they earn as was common practice in recent years.
Jesus’ parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 has two verses that have impacted me greatly. In verse 15, Jesus warns us to, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions. I have more than enough “stuff.” But when I measure my wealth, I don’t begin by counting my material assets. I count the true riches (Luke 16:11) of my relationship with God, with my wife, with our sons and their families, with my friends and colleagues. And then, when I look at my material resources—my home, my cars, by financial resources, the opportunities I have had in my life—I am amazed at God’s goodness. I certainly don’t deserve any of that. I am deeply grateful for God’s grace and blessings.
The second verse that hits me from this parable is how Jesus sums up the story He has just told. In verse 21, He said, This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. God calls us, expects us, and even demands us, to be generous. He doesn’t say that we shouldn’t store up things for ourselves. But if we think it’s all for us or about us, then, we’re in big trouble. As my friend Dick Towner has said, “God doesn’t bless us to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving.”
As I close this first post, let me ask you this question: Are you rich toward God? Well, we’ll be talking more about that in the weeks to come. I hope that your answer will be “Yes!” very soon, if you can’t say that today. I am convinced that this is one of the keys to having a wonderful life!