Giving instead of possessing

I've often said about church life (sometimes with a sense of passion and challenge, at other times with a sense of frustration)"When are we ever going to learn to do something, not based upon what we get out of it, but for what we can give to it?"

Examples of that:

Older couples going to marriage retreats to support younger couples and to show what a good marriage looks like.

Worshipping God in a service, even though I don't feel like it, knowing that I serve as an example to those around me and encourage other to worship as well.

Going to a "life group" not so much for what I can receive, but for what I can give to others.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: "What are you doing for others?"

Being a giving person means that I have an abundance mentality. If you've read Stephen Covey's book, "the seven habits of highly effective people," then you are familiar with the concepts related to the mind-sets of "scarcity" and "abundance".

Scarcity mind-set:

There's only a limited supply of anything to go around whether it's money, resources, opportunity, and so forth. They see the world as a pie with a limited number of slices. Once they're gone, they're gone. They fight to get their piece of the pie, and once they have it, they protect it.

Abundance mind-set:

Plenty of everything to go around. If life if a pie, and others are helping themselves to pieces, the solution of the person with the abundance mind-set is to bake another pie.

There is always more money to be made, more (or different resources to be discovered, additional opportunities to be pursued.

Henri Nouwen has written, "When we refrain from giving, with a scarcity mentality, the little we have will become less. When we give generously, with an abundance mentality, what we give away will multiply."

By the time Jackson Rogers turned 10-years-old, he had already built a house—not with hammer and nails, but by raising $43,000 for Habitat for Humanity. The young entrepreneur for the homeless said he undertook the project in February when he accepted $100 and a challenge from his pastor, the Reverend Rich Kannwischer at First Presbyterian Church.

"My pastor gave me $100 and told me to do something good to help someone," said Jackson, one of several congregants who accepted their pastor's challenge. The congregants were told to use the money for good, then report on what they did.

At first, David Rogers was hesitant for his son to take up such a daunting task, but Jackson was determined. "I was discouraging him to volunteer because I didn't know what the pastor intended. But he pulled away from me and ran down there," David Rogers said.

Jackson said he knew exactly what he wanted to do: "Help a homeless family." But he wasn't sure how to go about it. "I talked to my dad. It took two or three months to get the idea," he said. What they came up with was a letter-writing campaign seeking donations and explaining that it cost $50,000 to build a house through Habitat for Humanity. Jackson then wrote a letter in his own handwriting on notebook paper. "I used the $100 to buy stamps and paper," he said. "I sent out 200 letters," mostly to friends and family.

Soon, Jackson's efforts got an unexpected boost. A woman was so touched by his letter that she passed it on to several of her friends and colleagues. Soon, people from Tennessee, Virginia, and Idaho were sending in checks. The 170 people who responded made the effort worth while, contributing $43,000. When the congregation at First Presbyterian learned the little miracle worker was $7,000 short of his goal, it chipped in the rest.

Everyone who hears about Jackson's achievement is amazed. As his mom, Deborah, said: "A little person can do something really good. You don't have to wait to be an adult." Even more impressed is Stephanie Ramirez, whose family will get the house that Jackson built. When the Rogers family came out on the first day of construction, Ramirez was amazed when she learned that her benefactor was only 10 years old.

"My kids are so happy that a little guy out of the goodness of his heart could do this," she said.

Wasn't it Jesus who said that "it is more blessed to give than receive?"