Category: Starting the Day

You’ve seen this person.  Maybe you’ve known her or him.  Generous is not exactly the word that comes to mind when you think of this person.  It’s not about money.  No, it is about a spirit or an attitude in this person.  This man or woman seems to have a heart that is rooted in greed. 

 

This person may show little interest in your life.  He has a way of turning most dinner conversations back to himself.  He may see life in his town, city, school, or company as the center of the universe.  I once knew a family who moved to several different locations over the course of a few years.  It was interesting how each location became "the" place to live.  Every other place just seemed to be lacking.

 

Greedy people can be very nice and very pleasant.  You just need to know that you will not find very much generosity in these people.

 

• Greedy people are not liberal with praise–especially for those who seem to be "ahead" of them.
• Greedy people keep score.   They look at others around them and become concerned if they "get behind."
• Greedy people do not lavish forgiveness.  Nope–they have a way of remembering in great detail who did them wrong.
• Greedy people are not active in building others up.  Rather, they passively wait for others to build them up.
• Greedy people do not give money with joy.  They often want to know there will be some kind of payback. 
• Greedy people do not exude grace.  Instead, they have a way of critiquing everyone around them.
  

Living as a greedy person is to live in a small world.  This small world has "self" as the center of its existence.  In the end, a greedy person’s heart is small and cold. 

 

A number of years ago, our church had a worship service in which the children of our church were highly visible.  This was a special occasion which we knew the children would enjoy.  At some point during the day, one woman remarked, "Well what about people my age?  Why doesn’t anyone notice us?" 

 

I really understand the concern.  Because I have asked it in one form or another.

 

"What about me?"

 

When we focus on ourselves, our greedy hearts have a way of seeing everything with self at the center.  So, the question keeps coming.  "What about me?"

 

God has called us to have a large heart.  He has called us to have his heart which is rooted in generosity.  I want to know that my interaction with people reflects generosity and not greed.  I want to know that when people come away from being with me, they don’t remember a guy who was caught up in himself and in his little world. 

 

I think this has some real implications for my day, my week, and my life in general.  For those of us who follow Christ, this is a call to ask ourselves, "Am I more about generosity or am I more about greed?"

 

Might be worth thinking about.  Believe I will. 

What is a generous person like? 

Right now I am thinking about some generous people I’ve noticed through the years.  These people, in a variety of ways, model generosity.  As I think about some of these people, here are some qualities that I’ve seen.  (This is a composite of several people.)  These people are:

• Generous with their forgiveness.  (They "let it go" and move on.)
• Generous with their attention.  (They seem to focus on others and not themselves.)
• Generous with their praise.  (They notice and affirm people regularly.)
• Generous with their encouragement.  (They have a way of communicating confidence.)
• Generous with their time.  (Often, they are very busy people and yet they give you their time.)
• Generous with their money.  (They are not known for being tight and stingy.)
• Generous with their kindness.  (They do things for others as a result.)
• Generous with their thoughtfulness. (They do nothing that might humiliate another.)

What makes these qualities attractive?  They are God-like.  And–is he ever a generous God!

What makes these qualities almost radical?  They reflect a life that is focused on others and not on self.

What makes these qualities difficult?  Fear.  Our hesitancy to let go of ourselves.  We may not trust God with this much of our lives.

Today, I am praying for a generous heart.  I am praying that my life today will reflect more of what I just wrote instead of the heart of a grasping, fearful man. 

Maybe worth thinking about.

Yesterday, I was in Dallas with a friend and heard Joe Stowell, former President of Moody Bible Institute, speak.   In one of his talks, he spoke of being a generous person versus being a person of greed.  His use of these two words ("generosity" and "greed") went way beyond money issues.  Rather, these words describe a spirit, a disposition, and a way of living on many fronts.  In essence, these words describe a person’s heart. 

 

Some of us have a generous spirit.  Basically,  we reflect the character of God.  After all, God is a generous God.  Others of us have greedy hearts. In other words, regardless of what we are doing, we tend to focus on ourselves and our desire for more.

 

I’ve been thinking about this since my friend and I returned to Waco last evening.  I want to be a generous person.  But–I want to have a generous heart because I want to be like God.  For example, I want to be generous with mercy.

The world can be such a hard, mercy-less place.  Perhaps you can relate to this scene.  It is a hot afternoon.  Cars are lined up at a stoplight.  The light turns green.  One car does not begin moving the split second the light turns green.  The guy behind this car lays on the horn and looks very irritated.  The same kind of thing happens at work and in retail stores every day.  Many people treat others without generosity.  "You either respond correctly immediately or I will react negatively!"  Wow…

 

People can be really hard on one another.  Perhaps the cashier at Target is new.  She seems to be fumbling around with the keys at the check-out stand.  Maybe she doesn’t know how to enter the code for a certain item I am buying.  She asks another employee for help and then sheepishly apologizes to me, the customer, explaining that she is new.  How will I handle this?  Will I sigh deeply and  show my impatience?   Or, will I remember that God is generous with his mercy and I need to be generous with mercy as well?

 

I want to be generous today because God is a generous God.

• God is generous with his love.  He loves the "world" in general (John 3:16) and yet he loves me (and you) in particular.  How generous!
• God is generous with his grace and mercy.   He is described as one who is "rich in mercy" even when we are dead in our "transgressions and sins" (Ephesians 2:4).  How generous!
• God is generous with his Holy Spirit.  He has given his "forever presence" to every believer.  God’s forever presence (the Holy Spirit) was "…poured out on us generously through Christ Jesus, our Savior" (Titus 3:6).  How generous!
  

One of the most attractive characteristics a person can cultivate is generosity.  People who are generous with love, mercy, service, patience, etc. will be attractive because they reflect the very character of God.  After all–God is an attractive God.  Come to know God and you will want to know more of God.  Like David, you will want to "…gaze upon the beauty of the Lord" (Psalm 27:4).

How generous of God.

Today, I am off.  Am I ever glad!

This has been a long week.  (Yes, I remember that Monday was Labor Day.  But–even a "short" week can end up being very long.)

Lots of people.
Lots of tasks.
Some frustration.
Some disappointment.
Moments of joy.
Moments of satisfaction.

Today, I need to be attentive to replenishing.  I’ve learned to pay attention to what I’m sensing.  I’ve learned to not ignore tiredness.  Oh, I used to.  I thought that if I was very tired, it was important to just keep working hard.  Of course sometimes that may be necessary.  However, to ignore a warning sign is not the wisest thing to do.

It’s sort of like the person who is driving and  sees that he is low on gas.  What is he going to do?  He can stop as soon as he sees a place with gasoline and refuel.  Or, he can do what many people do and see how long he can go on empty.

I think I’ll refuel today.  I really don’t care to see how long I can go on empty.

For me, refueling today will mean a combination of things:

• Reading my Bible and praying.
• Reading a portion of Darryl Tippen’s book,  Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life.
• Working out.
• Doing something completely unrelated to my normal workday (got it planned).
• Doing something enjoyable with Charlotte this evening.
• Talking with a friend on the telephone (started doing that last night).
• Reading the newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee.
• Watching a football game sometime this weekend.

Nothing profound.  Nothing earthshaking. 

Yet, I’ve learned to be attentive to what is happening in my life.  I’ve learned to be attentive to where I am with my thinking, with my emotions, and with my body.  Paying attention to where you are and then dealing with it is not selfishness.  Rather, it is a part of good stewardship or management of the "self" God has given you.

When our children were small, I tried to be very attentive to them.  We played together a lot.  But–there were times when I would tell them that I was about to go on a short run and we would play more when I got back.  I can remember telling them, "I will be a more fun Daddy if I can run first."  I would get back from the run refreshed and we would play.  Now obviously there were times when we played whether I needed a nap or a short run or not.   However, I did want them to see that I took care of myself and they benefited.

Pay attention today and deal with where you are today so you can prevent completely running out of gas later.  I’ve learned this the hard way.  Maybe you have too.   

Silly question.  Like so many of us, I suspect you do.  Being taken for granted is the sense that you are really not appreciated or valued.

Maybe you’ve felt taken for granted by:

• Your spouse.  Perhaps the "thank you’s" are rare, while the complaints are being expressed far too often.
• Your children.  A child shows little appreciation for what you’ve done for him but complains strongly when you have not done exactly what he wants.
• Your parents.  Maybe they show little interest in who you are as a person. 
• Your friend.  You are the one who usually initiates anything that you do together. 
• Your company.  You have high standards for your work but do not feel appreciated by those for whom you work.
• Your church.  You have served in a variety of roles with little thanks. 

What would God’s list look like?  This morning, I think about how often he is taken for granted.  I think about how often I take him for granted.  At this moment, I would like to step in and declare that I am a very grateful person.  Grateful to God for every breath he has given me.  But–that wouldn’t be true.  Far too often I have taken God for granted.

Not good.   

After all, I certainly don’t like being taken for granted.  Yet, this happens to most of us and maybe quite often.  I can brood about this or just accept that even God experiences this.

Maybe by the grace of God, I can do what God does.  After all, he does not take his creation for granted but continues to love and sustain us each day.  I don’t want to take people for granted either.

• I don’t want to take the woman at the cleaners for granted.
• I don’t want to take the clerk at Target for granted.
• I don’t want to take my wife or children for granted.
• I don’t want to take the Crestview church for granted.
• I don’t want to take God’s gifts for granted.
• I don’t want to take God himself for granted.

I don’t want to take my life or the people in my life for granted because that is so unlike God.

Tomorrow, our daughter Christine will have been married one year.  She married a wonderful young man, Phillip.   They  are both committed Christ-followers.  I take none of that for granted.  And—I don’t want to ever take them for granted.  I want to appreciate Christine and Phillip and be thankful for who they are.  It is important that they hear that I appreciate them.  It is not enough to just think about it.

People are not mind readers.  If I appreciate someone, I really need to tell them.  Far too many people rarely hear a word of appreciation from their parents, their children, their church, etc.  How does that change?  It begins in my little corner of the world.

Today, I want to be grateful to God for who he is and for the many good moments I will experience today. 

Today, I want several people in my world to hear the words, "Thank you."

(I am also wondering, why do churches often seem to take people for granted?  Why is it that in some churches people rarely hear a "thank you"?  Maybe I’m off here, but I sense there are many in churches who really don’t feel appreciated.)

 

Yesterday, about mid-afternoon, I noticed that I was down.  Low.  Not real low, but low.  On a scale of one to ten, I was about a five. 

 

Now I don’t often notice these things right away.  But, for some reason I did yesterday.  I took a quick inventory of my thought world.  Hmmm. There were a couple of negative, troubling situations I had been dwelling on. It’s interesting that just being able to identify these and then put them in perspective actually helped the way I felt.  I think it was actually better to recognize what was behind a low feeling than to go throughout the day unaware.

 

Some people experience very little joy in their life with Jesus.   For some, that may be due to what is going on in their head regarding Jesus.  I wonder if some don’t feel burdened by it all, thinking that Jesus is basically measuring their lives against a list:  "101 Things Jesus Wants Done Today."  Of course, no matter how hard they try, they never measure up.  (But then there are people who do believe they measure up.  "We’ve got it right."  That is another story…)

 

Jesus once warned a group of people that their approach to God could be described as "straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel" (Matthew 23:24).  In other words, when they were about to eat their bowl of soup they became really concerned about a gnat in the soup.  In the meantime, a big hairy camel had his leg in the middle of the bowl.  They were ignoring what was big and obvious.

 

At this point, let’s stop.  Think about how you will live today.  Will you focus on the gnats or will you be attentive to what is much larger?  Will you focus on what is really important to Jesus today?  Jesus told the people of his day that they needed to be attentive to the "weightier matters of the law" such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23).  Earlier in the same book he spoke of the two most important commandments of the law:  Love God–Love People (Matt. 22:37-40). 

 

Right now, I am at my desk at home.  It is early morning and I am enjoying a cup of coffee.  Soon, I will begin to get ready for work.  First, I want to think about how I am going to approach the day.

 

Today, will I focus on the things Jesus said were most important?  Or, will I get bogged down with lesser matters?

 

A few suggestions:

• Don’t start with a list (101 Things Jesus Wants Me to Do Today).  Start with what is located at the center–the most important matters.

•Love God.  Love people.  Practice the weightier matters – justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

•Then, look at the rest of Scripture in light of these priorities.

 

Today, I don’t have to complicate life.  Life is complicated enough on its own.  I want to keep what is most important to Jesus front and center in my life.  He has enabled me through his Spirit to do anything he wants done, especially the things that are most important to him.   

 

Jesus has given me great clarity about what it means to live as a human being.  He has a way of simplifying what I want to complicate. 

 

I’m glad he’s in charge.