Generosity
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” I Timothy 3:7 KJV
When I was in high school, I went to Vo-Tech for two years. It was a carpentry class that I was enrolled in. I was thinking it was going to be more of a home building class, but it ended up being more of the building furniture type of class.
Taking things I learned from the class, I have learned to take a creative spin on many of my own projects. Sometimes I don’t realize what this gift of learning has taught me. Like many “talents,” once you learn the basics, you take chances on displaying different expressions of that talent. Before you know it, the talent becomes second nature to you and the steps you take just seem logical.
I was at my Mom’s house when my brother was telling me about a realtor’s comments. The realtor was talking about how the house should be staged. She told him there was a very nice piece that needed to be displayed prominently. Since my Mom has all kinds of antiques I asked which one she was talking about.
My brother pointed to a little green plant stand. The dark green, antiqued coated indoor stand had a place to display several plants at the top. There was an open space in the middle where you could store some things if you wanted. At the bottom there was more storage that had sliding doors so you could keep those items out of sight.
Finally, the stand rested on four casters. This made it easier to move it around. Slowly I turned away and changed the subject. You see, it was one of the projects I made in that carpentry class so many years ago. At the time, and still today, I couldn’t see it as a “work of art.” Instead, I believe it is just something my humble hands had thrown together.
Another project I worked on was a hope chest. I’m not sure where that finally ended up. I just used some “common woods” to put her together. Inside I lined it with cedar, though. I put a light stain and some shellac on the cedar to bring out some of the grain.
The outside of the bench was a darker stain. I used one of my favorite tools, the router, to finish it off. On the outside of the bench I etched “Where there is love…” with the router. On the inside I used my router, too. This time I scribbled: “…there is always hope.”
My ex-brother-in-law, who was a rugged, “tough,” construction worker, laughed at my attempts at a softer side. It is probably because of situations like that I really have a tough time “bragging” about myself or my “talents.”
Millard was born near Lanett, Alabama. He was an only child and his father worked at Lanett Bleachery and Dye Works. Millard’s mother, Estin, died three years later. His father, Render, would remarry. Now Millard would have two half-brothers.
Starting his own little business was the idea Millard came up with to get out of poverty. Selling some livestock, pigs, chickens, and rabbits is what he decided to do. He added fish bait to his selling menu, too. Later he would go door-to-door selling hosiery and underwear.
Athletics was another path Millard thought would take him out of poverty. He decided to become a baseball star. Working real hard he made it to the minor leagues. He was a pitcher. Injuries to his arm ended that dream.
Millard knew that the best path to riches lied in getting a good education, though. He would graduate with a degree in economics from Auburn University. He went on to attend the University of Alabama Law School. It was here that Millard met Morris Dee.
Sometimes I try to figure out “the rest of the story” behind some of the Bible stories. The Bible does a real good job of covering the meat of a story, but it often leaves out the mundane details. You won’t find things like, “Peter woke up every morning at 7. He would then go into the kitchen and fix himself an egg….”
It is often in the mundane that our character develops, though. For instance, if we saw Peter getting up at 7 each morning and fixing an egg, then we could understand that Peter was a little bit a creature of habit. We might also understand why Peter might get upset when someone was late when this might not bother someone else.
Time is probably one of the reasons the Bible doesn’t get into all the details. Not only would it take forever to get to the meat of a story, it would also require the story to be even longer than it already is.
Another reason the Bible might be vague on the details is that it would limit the readership to likeminded individuals. Someone like Peter, in our made-up example, who was very schedule-oriented, would completely understand Peter. If someone wasn’t like Peter they wouldn’t relate to the story as well or they might even think that there was something wrong with their personality. They may even wonder if their personality is unbiblical because of their way of thinking.
Because the Bible is set up this way, though, it allows me to relate to a Peter-type character one way while someone else might relate to him in a completely different way. And that is okay. But, for me, that doesn’t answer the question of why he was the way he was and why he did things the way he did. So, my imagination tries to guess.
This popular Bible story has a very nice and meaningful ending. I have heard countless sermons preached on it. Even the secular side of our society has taken note of this story. Even those diehard atheists probably would be willing to admit that its merits are admirable.
If such a story garners such attention, how do the characters get there in the first place and why do some react one way while others react a completely different way? My guess it is in those mundane details that get left out. They can interact in this story because of things and routines they did up until that point where the story crosses their path.
So, the Bible makes you pick which of the characters you want to be. If you must pick, you must put yourself in that character’s place. Then you could use the mundane details of your life as guiding principles to get you there.
Morris and Millard would start their own little business. They would sell Christmas trees and mistletoe. The up-and-coming direct-mail business was their next adventure. They would import Italian wreathes, which they in turn sold to the Boy Scouts. So, by the age of twenty-nine, Millard was a millionaire.
Millard would marry Linda Caldwell. I guess the “rich” life wasn’t all that Millard expected it to be. Linda and he attended the United Church of Christ regularly. The couple decided they wanted to simplify their life, so they started selling their possessions and began investing more time into their religion.
Millard and his wife would meet Clarence Jordan, the writer of the Cotton Patch Version of the Bible. Jordan was the founder of a farm that housed a Christian commune called Koinonia. This was an interracial commune that welcomed all those who believed that all the races could live together in peace.
Koinonia is where Millard and his family resided for a few months before he accepted a position at Tougaloo College. Still, Millard couldn’t find peace and he returned to Koinonia. On his return, Millard and Clarence joined forces to establish a goal of ridding the world of racism, poverty, and ignorance.
One of the biggest drawbacks of poverty is that you can never really afford a house of your own. Millard and Clarence decided that one way to help with this was to offer no-interest loans to those who were probably unable to afford a home any other way. They reincorporated the Koinonia Farm into Koinonia Partners.
Both Millard and Clarence were excited about their new adventure. They were going to build modest, affordable homes. Sadly, almost at the start, Clarence Jordan died.
Millard moved his family to Zaire where they started with the concept Clarence Jordan and he envisioned. They would build housing for 2,000 people.
Millard Fuller decided to move his project back to the United States where he established Habitat for Humanity.
The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the most popular of Jesus’ parables. We have a villain, who robs and beats up a young man, which he leaves for dead on the side of the road. Then a couple of apathetic characters, a priest and a Levite, come into the story. Their indifference leaves the young man on the side of the road.
Then the most unlikely of characters steps on the scene: a Samaritan. Since the young man in the ditch is a Jew, everyone in that time period would know that Samaritans and Jews just didn’t help each other. In fact, they would look down on their own kind if they even associated with the other sect.
Yet, this Samaritan does help. Why in the world would someone like this ever help an “enemy?” The answer to that can only be found in the mundane details of the individual’s life up until that point.
Why would Jesus ever use a Samaritan to portray a hero? Jesus was a Jew himself. Why would He make a hero out of His religion’s fiercest enemy? I think Jesus was trying to tell us, at each and every moment in our life, that we have the chance to be one of the characters in this parable.
We can be the victim lying on the side of the road. We work hard and accumulate a few possessions. Before we know it our job, bank account, or our possessions control more of our life’s decisions than anything else.
Maybe we become a victim because our life’s circumstances can get the best of us and that can be such a burden that overwhelms us. We just feel like staying in the ditch. Life can sometimes feel like it paralyzes us.
Or, we could study our Bible. Then we could quote verses all day long for reasons why that individual laid there in that ditch. The Bible says, “God helps those who help themselves, doesn’t it?” Yeah, we could take the priest’s point of view.
We could be that Levite, who was a good person, but who could come up with a thousand reasons why we didn’t want to get involved. “If I just look the other way, is he really even there?” or “Someone else would be better qualified to help him,” could echo in our minds.
Or we could be that Samaritan who only needed one reason to get involved: someone needed his help.
So what does Millard Fuller’s story have to do with any of the Presidents? Well, three years after Jimmy Carter suffered one of the most lopsided Presidential electoral defeats ever, he joined a group who was going to work on a project just up the road from his hometown.
The group was working on a project for Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Georgia. The project so touched Carter that, up until recently, he was involved with Habitat. In a way, Millard Fuller’s acts of kindness touched Carter so much that Carter got involved himself. Who knows how many other people have become involved with Habitat just because they have seen an aging former President swinging a hammer on a roof.
Let’s just look at this for one moment. One man comes up with the idea of helping individuals who just need a little break to help get them out of poverty. It touches another man, who happens to be a former President, and he gets involved. The aging former President touches other’s hearts and they get involved.
Before you know it, you have a cause that quite a few people are involved in. The biggest reason for the involvement isn’t a big advertising campaign to keep it going. What you see here is an involvement because others see people’s actions.
One of the strange twists to the Bible story is that Jesus never gives the characters names. The Samaritan goes nameless. Why do you think that is? I have a couple of thoughts.
First, and quite honestly this bothers me most about some churches “pleas” for money. I completely understand that churches need funds to operate, but often those “gifts” are called for with the strings of guilt attached. I believe God wants you to give back something he has already given you. You can never really own it. He could zap you right now. Your possessions would still be here even if you aren’t. So, He could take it all back if He really wanted it. He doesn’t.
You can look at that returning something back to Him for the priest’s perspective: the Bible says to do it, so just do it. You can look at it from the Levite’s perspective: you need to give because the priest says to do it, besides God might even reward you even more.
The man in the ditch kept his possessions to himself. Guess what? Someone came and took them away from him, so they were probably gone forever. Those possessions were no longer there to help someone else. Guess what? They were no longer there for him either.
But the Samaritan, he didn’t examine the situation at all to see what it would cost him. Nameless, he just went and did something. He gave because the mundane things in life had taught him that it was not his possessions that made him. It was his soul and his soul knew what was important.
The second reason I think the Samaritan goes nameless, as well as the other characters, is that Jesus knows that everyday you and I have a choice as to which character we want to be. You get to put your name on any one of the characters in the story.
God has given each of us talents, possessions, time and a host of other gifts. Whether we asked for them, worked for them, or even if we like or dislike them, makes no difference to the value they can be used for others. Everyday God sends people across our paths. Our influence on them is only limited by which character we chose to be.
So, which one do you want to be today? Then, just go do it.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Often it is easy to find a thousand reasons why we can’t be a help or a blessing to others. Help me, this day, to find one reason why I can and to act on it. Amen.
