(Robbie) “On Dec. 8,
1972, Tom and I eloped after my calculus final. We had nothing to speak of –
two college students living on $15.00 a week for food and gas – and gas was
important. It got us from campus to my parents’ house, where we had the promise
of a buffet dinner out if we showed up for worship on Sunday. Many a week we
returned to campus with full bellies and a cooler my mama packed with food she
thought we ‘might need’ but she ‘just wasn’t going to be able to use.’ Tom and
I were an economic unit with a lousy economy, but the love of God was plentiful
in the generosity shown to us by our church and parents.”
(Tom) “College
graduation brought new independence and a move away from family. Church became
just one option on Sunday mornings, and our attendance sporadic. It would be
our first child who would bring us back to the church for good.”
(Robbie) “Though our
faith and commitment grew, we were challenged to trust God with all aspects of
our lives. The loss of our baby Robert and, later, the death of our beloved son, John, could easily have led us away from God. Yet, our church and family
surrounded us, let us cry and gave us the confidence that God is always with
us.”
(Tom) “I clung to
that on a particular day about 20 years ago in New York, where my colleague,
Mike, and I spent a morning trying to convince a bank we had nothing to do with
our parent company’s financial misadventures. We received a phone call from the
company’s law firm ‘asking’ us to come for an appointment that afternoon. I
hung up, found the Gideon Bible in my hotel room and read it urgently.
Gathering up as much courage as I could, I went with Mike to the appointment,
where the attorney across the table said to our astonishment, ‘We are very
sorry we have caused so much trouble for you and ask that you do not sue us.’ I
don’t recall much else about that day except that it led to trusting God more
fully and beginning my own company, from which our generosity has grown.”
(Robbie) “We clearly
give more now than we did living on $15.00 and a cooler of food from my
parents, but we know generosity is not based on financial wealth. It is based
on trust. Generosity is found in the freedom of trusting God in all
circumstances. It is a way to live out Christian faith, a spiritual practice. Being
open to generosity is a way to receive the full measure of life God has in
store for us.”
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