Called to generosity, or a couple of big suckers?

Sometimes I don't feel like the most generous person. Living in the 4th largest city in the nation, we see our share of panhandlers. You see so many of them that you sort of become hardened towards people in need (or those professing a need - there IS a difference).

You get to the point that you are skeptical and assume everyone is a freeloader until proven otherwise. MOST of the time, you are well served with that assumption. Other times there is just something that tugs at you.

In the last couple of months there have been a couple of instances where I just felt lead to help someone. The first one was a little while back while I was putting gas in the car. A guy approached me and told me he had lost his job and needed a little gas money to make it through. OK, now I'm not a complete sucker. I don't give cash. My feeling is that I trust God to watch over the situation and to bless my generosity. I let him deal with the person and provide consequences if they are less than truthful.

In that situation, I told the guy that I didn't have cash, but if he really needed a little gas, he could pull up to the pump and I'd help him out with a few bucks worth of gas. He pulled up and I activated the pump. Feeling like living life on the edge, I wished him well and told him I would trust him to stop the pump at $10. He seemed genuinely thankful for the gift he was given, thanked me profusely, and I left. It worked out that time. He stopped the pump at $10. My thought is that a con man would have tanked up and cost me $50.

Shelly and I are NOT wealthy, but we do seem to be able to make ends meet. We don't give to everyone that comes asking, but sometimes you just get a little extra tug that tells you to do something.

Tonight was one of those nights. We went to Willie's Ice house for dinner. Nothing fancy, just a local burger type place that is kid friendly. Because of my birthday, I had a coupon for a free entree with the purchase of another entree and a couple of sodas. After we ate dinner, the boys and I were in the little video game room while Shelly finished her dinner and got the check taken care of. As we were preparing to leave, I noticed that the table that had been empty next to us was now occupied by a middle-aged black lady and a boy a little older than my boys, maybe 10 or so.

As we were driving away heading towards a gas station to fill the truck up, Shelly told me that the lady apparently had a coupon similar to mine and she and the boy had ordered just one entree. She overheard the waitress tell the lady that the coupon was only good for a free entree when you bought another. The lady quietly explained something to the waitress, and the waitress left to go see the manager. Basically, they had no money, and the lady was trying to feed the boy something. That manager had come by our table a few times during the night, and was obviously a caring guy, and he agreed to honor the coupon without a purchase requirement. The waitress even kicked in a cup of coffee on her dime for the lady.

The lady had leaned over to Shelly and told her that if we needed our house cleaned or a babysitter for the kids, she was low on money and could use some work. Well, we already have a cleaning service and daycare, so she thanked the lady for the offer, but told her we just didn't need those services. She didn't ask for money, she asked for work. As we were talking, we both knew we should do something, we just didn't know what we should do.

Well, when you are willing, God will give you ideas. As I was pumping gas at the Kroger gas station, it hit me. We would get some Kroger gift cards and go back and give them to the lady. If they are short on food money, that's a way we could give something useful without giving cash. I asked Shelly to go in and get $50 in cards and we would give them to the lady. The question was, What if they are already gone? Will they still be there? My belief is that God calls us to be willing. He will work the rest out. Shelly one-upped me. She bought $45 (they sell them in increments of $15), PLUS $15 in McDonald's cards that Kroger also sold. This lady was about to get hooked-up.

As we drove there, I told Shelly again that I just felt like we were being challenged to be willing. I had told God while I was standing at that pump that I would trust him and would be generous, but that if I gave generously, I hoped he would "pre-qualify" the recipient. If she was truly needy, they would still be there when we went back.

We headed back to Willie's with the gift cards in hand, and when we got there, they were already gone. We drove through the parking lot and went to the apartment complex that she had told Shelly they lived in, made a lap around it, and never saw them.

I told Shelly that it sure was disappointing to be willing to give something away, and in the end to not be able to. But, in the end, I feel like God challenged us to be WILLING to help. Hopefully he found us to have been willing and to have faithfully answered the call. We put those gift cards in the console of the truck, and hopefully one day soon we are able to give them cheerfully to someone in need.

Oh, and while the boys and I were in the truck waiting for Shelly to buy the cards, I got to give Matthew a little bit of a lesson in helping those less fortunate than ourselves. Hopefully one of these days he will understand.

Just a side note, I've noticed lately that we are surrounded by others who are also quite generous. Last week, I planned a men's retreat for the guys in our Sunday School class. We ended up with 25 guys out at the ranch. It was quite fun, but there was a price of admission to cover food and incidentals. Very reasonable at $25. What really touched me was that I was contacted by 2 of the guys in the class and asked to send notes out to guys that were not going and let them know that if times were rough and the cost was an issue, that I had extra money to cover them. These 2 guys are known only to me, and they asked to remain anonymous. They don't even know about each other making similar offers. Sure, this wasn't grocery money or anything serious like that, but it was still a big deal to me that these guys were willing to give of their excess to make sure one of their brother's didn't miss out on being a part of something over a few bucks. That's what it is all about.

I could go on and on about the anonymous gifts given to help people participate in mission trips, the donation a relative of mine made to someone here in my church that they had never met to help them after Hurricane Ike, etc, etc, but you get what I'm saying.

Basically, Shelly and I answered the challenge laid on us. Now, I'm issuing a challenge to you. Keep a look out, and be prepared, you never know when you will come across someone that you are able to provide a true blessing to. Trust me, it will mean MUCH more to them than it will cost you monetarily.

Please take a minute to post a comment telling how you were able to help someone out.