And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
2 Corinthians 8:10-12 (NIV)
Wendy and I quietly reached a milestone in recent weeks. In 2007, we began sponsoring a young girl in Kenya named Nyaguthi through Compassion International. Our small, monthly financial gift helped provide for Nyaguthi and her family’s basic needs along with her education. This was not, however, just a mindless financial transaction. For almost twenty years we have corresponded with Nyaguthi, learned about her life and desires, celebrated her birthday and holidays, and she has likewise gotten to know our family through our letters and photos.
Just a few weeks ago Compassion informed us that Nyaguthi is now finishing up her university education. At 22, she is graduating out of the Compassion program and will launch into finding a job and starting her life journey as an adult. I can’t explain the joy this makes us feel. We’ve watched her grow up. Her photos have been ever-present on our refrigerator. We have and will continue to pray for her.
In today’s chapter, Paul addresses a specific matter with the followers of Jesus in Corinth. The followers of Jesus in Jerusalem were experiencing terrible persecution. Some were being killed. The were being ostracized socially and financially which made life difficult just to manage life’s basic needs. Others were desperate to flee Jerusalem and seek safety in other regions, but lacked the means to do so. Paul and believers in the area of Greece were generously gathering money to send to Jerusalem to help out their spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ.
As I read Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthians to be generous, I was struck by his emphasis on desire. He directly writes that he is not commanding them, twisting their arms, or manipulating them. This is not a televangelist’s trickery of promising God will turn their financial gift into profitable personal gain. He simply appealed to the desire to be generous that he’d witnessed in them the previous year. He appeals to their eager willingness to be generous, to give what they can for others who are in need. Paul goes on to reference what he also wrote about to the believers in Philippi (Philippians 2) regarding Jesus’ example leaving the riches of heaven to become an impoverished human being, that anyone who believes in Him might know the riches of God’s grace and inherit Life both abundant and eternal.
I confess that I was not a generous person as a young man. Generosity has been something that has grown within me as I have grown and matured in God’s Spirit. Wendy has taught me much in both her heart and example. One of the things that I continuously realize and remind myself: I have never, not once, regretted being generous. Not only do I lack any regret, but I look at Nyaguthi’s face on our refrigerator, think of how she’s grown in body, mind, and Spirit over the years, and I feel a surging desire to be more generous. The words “eager willingness” that Paul uses in today’s chapter describes my feelings rather well.
So, in the quiet this morning I am celebrating Nyaguthi’s launch and also thinking about the task Wendy and I have before us of beginning our sponsorship of another child.
I am eager to do so. I have never regretted being generous.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
