How generous are you? I don’t have any scientific data, but I would
wager that if we rated ourselves on a scale of one to ten, most of us would
place ourselves on the upward side of the line.
It is easy for all of us to be legends in our own mind!
But how would your wife, your
husband, your children, or your friends rate you? Even more, where do you think your server at
the last place you ate would place you?
I have been thinking about that as
we prepare to speak about generosity because every one of my daughters has
worked or is working as a server or hostess at a restaurant. This week I sat down with some of them and
emailed others to see what they thought about this issue of generosity. The stories they told me were incredible. There were wonderful accounts of people who
treated my daughters with so much kindness and generosity. There were other stories that made their
preacher-father think unholy thoughts…
Could it be that the way we treat
those who serve us in a restaurant is a window into our soul? Could it be a fair picture of who we really are
and what we think when it comes to money and generosity? The question is worth pursuing. This weekend, we are going to be listening to
Jesus and his encouragement (actually that is too soft a description) to be
generous. He criticizes the man who
spends all his time building bigger barns to enable a future easy life. Instead, he commands his followers in a beautiful
and poignant phrase to be, “rich toward God.”
Nobody lives life with the goal of
becoming stingy. Every single one of us
wants to be generous. This weekend, we
are going to talk about a way to do exactly that. Come and join us! And after church, make sure treat your
servers well at the restaurant…the preacher’s daughter may be serving you!
See you there,
Pastor Pete
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