Random Generosity
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go4tli
Dec 22, 2011, 3:14:06 PM12/22/11
to CNX-men
Over the holiday season, I've been reading stories like this, and
they've been doing my heart good:
http://consumerist.com/2011/12/not-so-secret-santa-picks-up-16k-for-1000-shoppers-holiday-layaway-items.html
That's the story of someone who paid off all of a local K-Mart's
layaway bills that amounted to less than $100. *All of them*. It
cost just shy of $16,000; the store manager spent four days calling
people to let them know that their stuff was paid for. This
generosity inspired an additional $8,000 worth of anonymous generosity
at K-Mart.
In fact, it's a minor epidemic. Discount stores are a wonderful place
for anonymous generosity, it would seem:
http://www.standard.net/stories/2011/12/17/anonymous-layaway-santa-paying-balances
A mysterious benefactor paid for $10,000 worth of treatment for a
cancer patient:
http://www.ksn.com/content/news/also/story/A-cancer-patient-gets-a-big-donation/uq4FRQkP6k-5EsN9FhwlWQ.cspx
Here's a woman who paid overdue water bills for seventeen families:
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20111201/NEWS01/312010008/Good-Samaritan-pays-17-overdue-water-bills
The trend has even gotten a name: "layaway angels" or "layaway
Santas". I like Shane Claiborne's term for this kind of kindness:
"holy mischief".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-claiborne/a-season-for-holy-mischie_b_790149.html
This reminds me of a game my wife and I played before we got married,
and we still resurrect it from time to time: If we won the lottery,
whom would we help without telling anyone? (It's a lot harder to win
the lottery when you don't paticipate, I'll admit, but the huge
jackpots still get us to play with the idea from time to time. I
don't know if I would actually be generous enough to share like this,
but I would like to think that I am.)
It's beautiful, really. But you don't need me to point out how
beautiful it is. You don't need me to explain why this kind of
generosity is admirable, or just plain delightful, or morally good.
We understand that instinctively.
Consider what this means, again, in terms of Dickens' oft-repeated
Christmas story. It has a villain that's fairly typical elsewhere in
Dickens -- a miserly, avaricious rich man who is simultaneously a
calloused and cruel employer. One of the wonderful evidences that he
has changed is that he engages in this kind of anonymous gift-giving.
That spontaneous and anonymous gift-giving pours out of him, because
he has *changed*, and that change is *liberating*.
If only there were some kind of parallel to the Christian experience.
And but anyway, I think this sort of thing flies in the face of those
people who opine that the only reason people have to protest as part
of Occupy <fill-in-the-blank> is their own envy of people who have
more. The delight we take in these stories seems to belie that idea.
We *like* good-hearted rich people. A lot.
(Does anyone remember the unending hullabaloo after Steve Jobs'
death? He was richer than *a lot of people*. Yet, we bought millions
of copies of his biography. We bought Apple products and stock in
record numbers. We set up shrines to his brilliance in our
marketplaces. We talked about him in awed tones on the evening news
for weeks. In what world are these the actions we take when someone
hated has died?)
We don't dislike Scrooge at the beginning of "A Christmas Carol"
because he's successful. We hate him because he's cruel, and greedy,
and petty, and he enriches himself at the expense of the hard work of
his employees. It's so instinctive to dislike these character traits
that Scrooge even hates *himself*; he's one of the most joyless
characters in English literature. And he's this way even though he
tries to reassure himself with the logic of greed. Even though he
tries to remind himself that he's a "job creator", so his abuse of
Cratchit is justified.
But that never works. There's a reason "miserable" and "miserly"
share the same linguistic roots.
So, let me get this game started. Let's say you had $10 million.
Whom would you spend it on? What would you do with it?
When my wife and I play, we like to think of paying off cars or
mortgages for people who aren't expecting it and who are clearly
struggling. Sometimes, I like to think of taking something that's
always been fun for me and making it free for some kids who normally
couldn't get to do it at all. But I bet that you guys are a lot more
inventive and creative than I am -- how would you be generous and
mischievous, if only you had the means?
I bring this up in part because studies show over and over that the
holidays lead to depression in many people (I'm not really immune
myself). I only hope that imagining this way can, if only in our
minds, remove some of the "misery" that seems to cloud so much this
time of year. And maybe it'll get us used to the idea of generosity
generally, a mindset that I imagine our Creator would like to see very
much. :)
they've been doing my heart good:
http://consumerist.com/2011/12/not-so-secret-santa-picks-up-16k-for-1000-shoppers-holiday-layaway-items.html
That's the story of someone who paid off all of a local K-Mart's
layaway bills that amounted to less than $100. *All of them*. It
cost just shy of $16,000; the store manager spent four days calling
people to let them know that their stuff was paid for. This
generosity inspired an additional $8,000 worth of anonymous generosity
at K-Mart.
In fact, it's a minor epidemic. Discount stores are a wonderful place
for anonymous generosity, it would seem:
http://www.standard.net/stories/2011/12/17/anonymous-layaway-santa-paying-balances
A mysterious benefactor paid for $10,000 worth of treatment for a
cancer patient:
http://www.ksn.com/content/news/also/story/A-cancer-patient-gets-a-big-donation/uq4FRQkP6k-5EsN9FhwlWQ.cspx
Here's a woman who paid overdue water bills for seventeen families:
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20111201/NEWS01/312010008/Good-Samaritan-pays-17-overdue-water-bills
The trend has even gotten a name: "layaway angels" or "layaway
Santas". I like Shane Claiborne's term for this kind of kindness:
"holy mischief".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-claiborne/a-season-for-holy-mischie_b_790149.html
This reminds me of a game my wife and I played before we got married,
and we still resurrect it from time to time: If we won the lottery,
whom would we help without telling anyone? (It's a lot harder to win
the lottery when you don't paticipate, I'll admit, but the huge
jackpots still get us to play with the idea from time to time. I
don't know if I would actually be generous enough to share like this,
but I would like to think that I am.)
It's beautiful, really. But you don't need me to point out how
beautiful it is. You don't need me to explain why this kind of
generosity is admirable, or just plain delightful, or morally good.
We understand that instinctively.
Consider what this means, again, in terms of Dickens' oft-repeated
Christmas story. It has a villain that's fairly typical elsewhere in
Dickens -- a miserly, avaricious rich man who is simultaneously a
calloused and cruel employer. One of the wonderful evidences that he
has changed is that he engages in this kind of anonymous gift-giving.
That spontaneous and anonymous gift-giving pours out of him, because
he has *changed*, and that change is *liberating*.
If only there were some kind of parallel to the Christian experience.
And but anyway, I think this sort of thing flies in the face of those
people who opine that the only reason people have to protest as part
of Occupy <fill-in-the-blank> is their own envy of people who have
more. The delight we take in these stories seems to belie that idea.
We *like* good-hearted rich people. A lot.
(Does anyone remember the unending hullabaloo after Steve Jobs'
death? He was richer than *a lot of people*. Yet, we bought millions
of copies of his biography. We bought Apple products and stock in
record numbers. We set up shrines to his brilliance in our
marketplaces. We talked about him in awed tones on the evening news
for weeks. In what world are these the actions we take when someone
hated has died?)
We don't dislike Scrooge at the beginning of "A Christmas Carol"
because he's successful. We hate him because he's cruel, and greedy,
and petty, and he enriches himself at the expense of the hard work of
his employees. It's so instinctive to dislike these character traits
that Scrooge even hates *himself*; he's one of the most joyless
characters in English literature. And he's this way even though he
tries to reassure himself with the logic of greed. Even though he
tries to remind himself that he's a "job creator", so his abuse of
Cratchit is justified.
But that never works. There's a reason "miserable" and "miserly"
share the same linguistic roots.
So, let me get this game started. Let's say you had $10 million.
Whom would you spend it on? What would you do with it?
When my wife and I play, we like to think of paying off cars or
mortgages for people who aren't expecting it and who are clearly
struggling. Sometimes, I like to think of taking something that's
always been fun for me and making it free for some kids who normally
couldn't get to do it at all. But I bet that you guys are a lot more
inventive and creative than I am -- how would you be generous and
mischievous, if only you had the means?
I bring this up in part because studies show over and over that the
holidays lead to depression in many people (I'm not really immune
myself). I only hope that imagining this way can, if only in our
minds, remove some of the "misery" that seems to cloud so much this
time of year. And maybe it'll get us used to the idea of generosity
generally, a mindset that I imagine our Creator would like to see very
much. :)
Shane Bazer
Dec 22, 2011, 3:33:13 PM12/22/11
to cnxme...@googlegroups.com
I think one point worth mentioning is that if we are not generous when we are poor, it is still going to be difficult to be generous when we are rich.
If we cringe at the thought of writing a check for $10 to our church (or other charity) because we are "poor" then it is going to be much harder to write checks with multiple zeros in it when we are "rich".
Based on my life experience working with people of various economic backgrounds, my guess is that these acts of "anonymous generosity" were mainly initiated by those who made it a point of giving throughout their life - not just upon a windfall.
I like your question about "winning the lottery" but maybe we should all ask ourselves what would we do with an unexpected $100 bonus or gift. Would we find ways to be generous to others with that?
This is something I'm trying to teach my children at a very young age. Every time they receive their allowance or payment for work, they first decide how much are they going to give as an offering. If it doesn't become part of their heart when they are young I am afraid it will be very difficult to let go of money when they are older.
- Shane
If we cringe at the thought of writing a check for $10 to our church (or other charity) because we are "poor" then it is going to be much harder to write checks with multiple zeros in it when we are "rich".
Based on my life experience working with people of various economic backgrounds, my guess is that these acts of "anonymous generosity" were mainly initiated by those who made it a point of giving throughout their life - not just upon a windfall.
I like your question about "winning the lottery" but maybe we should all ask ourselves what would we do with an unexpected $100 bonus or gift. Would we find ways to be generous to others with that?
This is something I'm trying to teach my children at a very young age. Every time they receive their allowance or payment for work, they first decide how much are they going to give as an offering. If it doesn't become part of their heart when they are young I am afraid it will be very difficult to let go of money when they are older.
- Shane
go4tli
Dec 22, 2011, 5:54:00 PM12/22/11
to CNX-men
On Dec 22, 3:33 pm, Shane Bazer <shaneba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> If we cringe at the thought of writing a check for $10 to our church (or
> other charity) because we are "poor" then it is going to be much harder to
> write checks with multiple zeros in it when we are "rich".
Well put. I think that's one of the principles Jesus taught, too
> If we cringe at the thought of writing a check for $10 to our church (or
> other charity) because we are "poor" then it is going to be much harder to
> write checks with multiple zeros in it when we are "rich".
(Matthew 25:21,23) -- and better to get started here and now on
character traits that make us more like the kind of people He wants us
to be, right?
In that regard, I myself have some bad habits that, with God's help,
I'm working to undo. He's unfailingly generous; I constantly find
myself making excuses. Cultivating the mindset -- and the habits! --
is something I find helps.
> I like your question about "winning the lottery" but maybe we should all
> ask ourselves what would we do with an unexpected $100 bonus or gift.
> Would we find ways to be generous to others with that?
the lottery because that allows for bigger dreams. :) But you're
perfectly right.
> This is something I'm trying to teach my children at a very young age.
> Every time they receive their allowance or payment for work, they first
> decide how much are they going to give as an offering. If it doesn't
> become part of their heart when they are young I am afraid it will be very
> difficult to let go of money when they are older.
thing to try to teach to our children.
We set aside money ourselves expressly for the purpose of giving to
some homeless folks near us (my bride is good at finding out where
they like to work and hang out). Explaining to the kids what we're
doing and how we're trying to help has made them -- on their own! --
set aside some of their own allowances to give as well. I hope it
sticks with them.
go4tli
Dec 26, 2011, 4:31:36 PM12/26/11
to CNX-men
Germane to our discussion are these words from one of Christianity's
earliest recorded writers -- the Shepherd of Hermas (ca. AD 100-160),
Chapter IX:
"Ye, therefore, who are high in position, seek out the hungry as long
as the tower is not yet finished; for after the tower is finished, you
will wish to do good, but will find no opportunity. Give heed,
therefore, ye who glory in your wealth, lest those who are needy
should groan, and their groans should ascend to the Lord, and ye be
shut out with all your goods beyond the gate of the tower.
"Wherefore I now say to you who preside over the Church and love the
first seats, 'Be not like to drug-mixers. For the drug-mixers carry
their drugs in boxes, but ye carry your drug and poison m your
heart.'"
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd.html
earliest recorded writers -- the Shepherd of Hermas (ca. AD 100-160),
Chapter IX:
"Ye, therefore, who are high in position, seek out the hungry as long
as the tower is not yet finished; for after the tower is finished, you
will wish to do good, but will find no opportunity. Give heed,
therefore, ye who glory in your wealth, lest those who are needy
should groan, and their groans should ascend to the Lord, and ye be
shut out with all your goods beyond the gate of the tower.
"Wherefore I now say to you who preside over the Church and love the
first seats, 'Be not like to drug-mixers. For the drug-mixers carry
their drugs in boxes, but ye carry your drug and poison m your
heart.'"
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd.html
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