“I always feel that there’s more out there than what I’m getting,” Ron told me. He’s half-owner of a contracting and building supply business. He goes on, “my marriage is good and that sustains me through hard times. But isn’t there more to life than this?”

    Not long ago, I had the privilege of eating with a millionaire and his wife. They were down-to-earth people — very intelligent, hardworking, yet also generous, kind and focused on helping others.

    Donnie said to me, “Randy, God did all this. We view it as a sacred stewardship to use this along the way — as we live our life. We told our children that we’ve set something aside for each of them for their families, but the bulk of our resources are going to help people now. We pray it honors our Lord Jesus who laid down his life for others.”

    It is clear that Jesus is their inspiration. We can’t do anything perfectly like he did. Remember the song we sing: He came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross our debt to pay, from the cross to the grave from the grave to the sky, Lord we lift your name on high. It’s good to know that in giving our lives we become more like Jesus.

    When Ron told me he wanted more in his life, I thought of Donnie — for whom everyday life is very exciting. I know how easily we discount Donnie’s wonderful priorities, with thoughts like “well, of course — I’d be generous too, if I was that rich.”

    Maybe so. But maybe you’d be dissatisfied with that kind of life also. A generous spirit begins in the heart, not in the bank.

    The Bible give several examples of rich people being called by God. Abraham answered with a powerful “yes” — and left everything to follow God into a totally different land. The rich young ruler went away sorrowful: he said “no” to Jesus because he could not turn away from his wealth and accept Jesus’ call to discipleship.

    How about you? “Not wealthy therefore not guilty.” Is that how you think?

A generous spirit begins in the heart.

    George Gallup once told a group of church leaders “Americans are perhaps the loneliest people on earth today.” He suggests that Americans suffer from “personal isolationism.” Loneliness takes a serious toll on our well-being, both socially and spiritually. Maybe it begins with confusion, then isolation — “I’m not significant” — followed by feelings of hostility and anger, and finally feelings of exhaustion and depression.

    The spread of loneliness can be traced to these primary factors:

• The “more is better” syndrome.
  We want meaningful friendships, but not at the expense of meeting our sensual needs, experiencing the newest, biggest, fastest, most prestigious, most expensive, best. We want the maximum benefit out of a relationship with minimal time commitments.
• We pride ourselves on the freedom to think creatively, to pursue our dreams, to develop a unique persona.
  Often this results in rugged individualism . . . and thinking of others as tools rather than partners.
• Today we have worldwide instant communication . . . if one thinks of it as the transmission of information.
  Yet so little warm, personal communication takes place. There is more personal communication, more listening in one true relationship of soul friendship than in 25 casual friendships.
• Fear of commitment is a growing problem.
  In relationships that look — to the outside world — like a happy engagement just weeks away from the wedding, fear of being hurt or used and discarded can fill a person with anxiety and dread.
• Many Americans have come to distrust our country’s leadership and basic institutions — law enforcement, the postal service, the IRS, FBI, CIA, etc.
  Reversing the tendency to distrust will be hard work because America has taken the approach of cynicism and suspicion towards anything newsworthy. It’s freedom of speech, but it grinds down the common courtesy we used to give one another. To love another without suspicion of wrongdoing is to be naive, says the conventional wisdom. Suspicion of others’ motives results in a bogged down society. A common vision should lift us up and bind us together.