Comments on: Questions that arise around generosity. http://www.northvalleyfriends.org/2007/10/12/questions-that-arise-around-generosity/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:45:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Richard Benham http://www.northvalleyfriends.org/2007/10/12/questions-that-arise-around-generosity/#comment-476 Richard Benham Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:38:17 +0000 http://www.northvalleyfriends.org/2007/10/12/questions-that-arise-around-generosity/#comment-476 When we consider whether Jesus was generous or not we may soon get caught in a quagmire of semantics. If" He owns the cattle on a thousand hills?" why did he seem to live in such poverty? If he died a King how-is-it that his crown was onf of thorns? It seems that he was quite generous with the wealth of others. He took a little boys lunch and fed the whole crowd with it. Some of the people who traveled with Jesus are reported to have been quite wealthy and he seems to be quite generous in asking strangers to travel along and share the wealth, I have always been generous with my wisdom even when no one asked for it. I was in dire need of a fairly large sum of money when I was in college. A dear friend (known to be of great wealth by the community) saw me walking home after class when he pulled his Cadillac over rather suddenly and leaned out the window as shadowed "Richard, I know you are suffering right now, could you use a thousand bucks? I was completely blown away because it seemed the Lord had heard my prayers after all because that was exactly how much I had prayed for. "Come over to the house about 3:30 and I'll have a check ready for you." As you can imagine I was quite elated and it would seem I floated up the stairs to his front porch. He said have a seat here and I'll go get a check. From where I sat on the swing on the front porch I could hear the birds chirping and children playing and laughing and my good friend and his good wife discussing, at a fairly high pitch, just exactly where that money was going to come from. When a surprisingly surly lady came to the front door with a check rather rudely ripped from a resistant check book, I had decided that my need was not as their generosity and suggested that they could use that bit of money at least as well as I could. It took some strong convincing on both our parts as to who should keep that generous gift but I finally won out and they kept it. What followed was a time of praying and crying and hugging out of which grew a deeper love on both our parts from that day to this. Generosity is a hope in the heart that my need to share is met by another's need to receive. I must never offer a bucket of milk to a hungry neighbor after the cow has just stuck her foot in it. Who knows where this line of rhetoric will lead if I let it continue unguided. I will turn the tap of verbal generosity to full off now and let the reader try to decipher to mixed metaphors When we consider whether Jesus was generous or not we may soon get caught in a quagmire of semantics. If” He owns the cattle on a thousand hills?” why did he seem to live in such poverty? If he died a King how-is-it that his crown was onf of thorns?

It seems that he was quite generous with the wealth of others. He took a little boys lunch and fed the whole crowd with it. Some of the people who traveled with Jesus are reported to have been quite wealthy and he seems to be quite generous in asking strangers to travel along and share the wealth, I have always been generous with my wisdom even when no one asked for it.

I was in dire need of a fairly large sum of money when I was in college. A dear friend (known to be of great wealth by the community) saw me walking home after class when he pulled his Cadillac over rather suddenly and leaned out the window as shadowed “Richard, I know you are suffering right now, could you use a thousand bucks?

I was completely blown away because it seemed the Lord had heard my prayers after all because that was exactly how much I had prayed for. “Come over to the house about 3:30 and I’ll have a check ready for you.”

As you can imagine I was quite elated and it would seem I floated up the stairs to his front porch. He said have a seat here and I’ll go get a check. From where I sat on the swing on the front porch I could hear the birds chirping and children playing and laughing and my good friend and his good wife discussing, at a fairly high pitch, just exactly where that money was going to come from. When a surprisingly surly lady came to the front door with a check rather rudely ripped from a resistant check book, I had decided that my need was not as their generosity and suggested that they could use that bit of money at least as well as I could. It took some strong convincing on both our parts as to who should keep that generous gift but I finally won out and they kept it. What followed was a time of praying and crying and hugging out of which grew a deeper love on both our parts from that day to this.

Generosity is a hope in the heart that my need to share is met by another’s need to receive.

I must never offer a bucket of milk to a hungry neighbor after the cow has just stuck her foot in it. Who knows where this line of rhetoric will lead if I let it continue unguided. I will turn the tap of verbal generosity to full off now and let the reader try to decipher to mixed metaphors

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