How Generosity Gives Back – 3

The blessings continue. As you have less money you find that you live more thriftily. You don’t mind downsizing. You look forward to getting bargains rather than spending prodigiously. You learn how to turn down the heat, drive more efficiently, cut out needless expenditures. You learn to eat better and eat less. You don’t really have to dine out so much so your family life improves as you spend more time at home. You don’t need all the fancy entertainments so maybe you read more or you play games with your kids and grandkids. All of this adds up to a better lifestyle and more money in your pocket because you aren’t wasting so much on stupid rich people’s stuff.

You also have more money because you work harder when you have less. You’re more aware of the needs of people and you identify with the poor even just a little bit. That is good for the soul and brings more blessings. Most of all you feel  more blessed because you are more blessed. Giving generously has changed your life. You are not only free from the tyranny of money, but free from the tyranny of materialism.

When he was in his fifties, after years of virtual poverty because of a failing business and years of sacrificial giving my Dad risked everything and moved to South Carolina to open up a store in a new shopping mall. Why was he able to make such a radical and risky move at that stage in his life? Because he had lived his whole life by faith–taking the radical risk of giving generously to God. He had learned to walk by faith and taking risks in that adventure was part of his life view. The store in the mall was a success. Eventually he had a chain of six stores across South Carolina.

He became genuinely well off for the first time in his life. However, he and my Mom continued to live very modestly. At one point they rented a small home, had one car and spent their retirement traveling around the world on mission trips. They helped build Christian camps in Ukraine. They assisted missionaries in Romania. They travelled to Russia, England, Alaska, Italy and France. They were never fabulously wealthy, but they were always fabulously blessed.

Why don’t you try it?