A Cup of Generosity, from Pastor Dana Karen Reardon
We’re happy to introduce a new monthly column, A Cup of Generosity, from Pastor Dana Karen Reardon and the Grand Canyon Synod Stewardship Team.
“I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
My dad was a drunk.
Not a mean drunk, but maybe a cynical one. Then he got sober. And God changed him more than I knew.
About ten years after he got sober he called me and told me that one of the “kids” I was confirmed with had been arrested for dealing heroin. Now mind you I was probably forty at the time. I was sure he was going to go on to tell me something negative about my generation that I didn’t want to hear. I almost hung up, but I didn’t.
He paused for a moment and then said, “I went to jail to visit him. I went to tell him how badly I had messed up my life and that God had been there for me. I went to tell him that Jesus loves him.” He put some money in the man’s canteen account. This was who God had redeemed my father to be. When he died so many people told us how he had touched their lives by his time and his wisdom.
Everything good we do comes from God. We are generous because God has been generous to us. When people tell me that stewardship is not just about money I often figure they are trying to get out of giving what they know they should. Nevertheless they speak the truth. We tend to break it down to time, talent and treasure but to me it is an all encompassing attitude of generosity, a way of looking at the world and seeing where we can give of ourselves.
When dad got sober he started going to church and reading the bible daily. He was often an usher and took up the offering and said thank you to each person. The children in that church called him, “The man who says thank you.” I like to think of him that way because he was truly thankful for what God had done for him.
Let us pray.
“Lord, we give you thanks for all the ways that you are here for us in all the times of our lives. Surround us with your love so that our cups overflow and your love flows upon all those around us.”
