I have an Elevation Church sticker on my car.

I believe that I am a generous person.  In general, when we have opportunities to invest in a ministry, gift, mission, etc., I always vote to give more.  I'm all about a hand-out to someone who needs it.  Whether that's because I'm more generous than Sean, or because I don't look at our finances and therefore have no real benchmark to refer to, is up for debate.  So yesterday, when Sean shared with me, what he shared with a random beggar in the Home Depot parking lot, I thought he must be joking.  I quickly let the issue of whether or not he was kidding to rest, and went about my day until we had some quiet time during which he was going to confess.  That time came around 7 or so, and we set out for a long walk, and a discussion of "beggars".

I told him about a time when a beggar at a rest stop had told my grand dad some long drawn out story about why he needed money.  My grand dad had responded with what was determined by my brothers and I to be an overly generous donation.  The beggar had gone and fist bumped his fellow beggar, and we were FURIOUS at how he'd just taken advantage of an 84 year old.  Pops didn't join in.

And here I am.  Married to someone who can't tell a liar in a parking lot when he sees one.  Luckily, he's married to me- the wiser.  During our walk, I sought to understand the reasoning of this soul that's now a part of mine.

Can we really tell whether or not someone really needs what they ask for?  Probably not.  But God calls us to be generous.  He doesn't qualify it.  I believe that.  That doesn't mean I always live it, but I do believe that we should be generous when called to be generous, and should trust that God can deal with the other person if they use your 20 dollar bill to buy drugs.  Still, I don't give all of my spare change to anyone who asks.  Because part of me thinks that I'll just know if someone really needs it.  Which is what I told Sean, and what led me to feel quite convicted afterwards.  Because that's when he brought up an interesting point.  One that I thought was worth sharing.

Sean said that he doesn't believe that generosity is about the other person at all.  Whether or not they really need what they ask for is TOTALLY irrelevant.  It's actually about you, and cultivation of YOUR spirit.  It's God giving you an opportunity to help someone who has less than you.  Spiritually, emotionally, physically, or in this case financially.  And whether or not you choose to take it.  Generosity  is a way that we can show the love of Christ to those around us, and therefore, is a way that we can become more like Christ.  And becoming more like Christ really should be the goal of our lives.  So that money to someone in a parking lot might buy a meal, but it also aids in the cultivation of your spirit to make you more like Christ, and we don't want to pass up that opportunity.

Sean finished up his explanation with "...besides, I had an Elevation Church sticker on my car".  And I definitely don't want someone's possibly only interaction with me to be one in which they learn that people who love Jesus don't love beggars.

Have I mentioned lately how much I respect my husband?

"Remember this- whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."

-2 Corinthians 9:6