Many of us like to dream about what we would do, if only… we had more money or more time, or we weren’t so tired from all the demands of work and family.
Meet Albert Lexie. He is 71 and is a shoeshine man. Shining shoes is the only job Albert has ever had. He started shining shoes when he was 15 and has been shining shoes for 56 years. Albert is “developmentally disabled.” But he loves the Lord and is convinced that whatever gift God has given us must be used to help other people. So Albert believes that he has been given the gift of shoe shining, and over the past 36 years, he has donated all of his tip money, more than $200,000, to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Albert doesn’t own a car, so he takes a bus, actually two buses, to make the 90-minute trip to and from his shoe shining job. He said it makes him really happy to use his “gift” to help children.
Greg Parady is a financial planner. Last December he went to a local Walmart to purchase some bicycles that he was going to donate at his company’s charity gala. While he was waiting for his wife and business partner to arrive, he overheard a woman telling someone that she didn’t think she would be able to afford to collect the items on her layaway account. Totally on a whim, Parady went to the layaway department and asked an associate for the total cost of all the items on layaway at that Walmart. Then for two hours Parady paid dozens of layaway accounts amounting to tens of thousands of dollars for total strangers. One young woman, who came in to make a payment on her layaway account, met Parady. He said to her, “Let me take care of that bill.” She began to cry and said, “No one’s ever done anything like this for me ever before.” And then Parady began crying and the ladies behind the desk started crying; and then, Parady’s business partner began to cry. Parady said, “My mom was a single mom for a long time, and I was a layaway kid, so it is nice to be able to help!”
According to a new book titled “The Paradox of Generosity,” researchers find a consistent association between generous giving and various measures of personal well-being, such as happiness, health, a sense of purpose in life and personal growth. Explanations for why this link exists include reinforcing positive emotions, developing a sense of self-efficacy (the sense that we can make a difference), and expanding social networks. We know that generosity can trigger neuro-chemical systems in our brain that increase pleasure and reduce stress. The research is clear: when we hold on to what we have, we short-change ourselves! When we open our hands and share, we bless ourselves!
Despite the personal benefits that generosity brings to the generous person, only 3 percent of Americans give at least 10 percent of their incomes away. Of Americans, 8 percent give 2 percent or less of their incomes away. Why aren’t we more generous? According to “The Paradox of Generosity”: 1) We don’t believe generosity is our responsibility. People in this book report that generosity is up to each individual. The feeling communicated was, “I don’t think anybody should be required to be generous.” 2) We don’t think we have enough money. Many folks reported that they would like to be generous, but they can’t afford to give anything to anyone beyond their own families. 3) Our jobs make us too tired to be generous. One person said, “I’m so tired when I get home that I guess I just get wrapped up in my own life. I don’t even think about giving to someone else.”
Underneath our ungenerous lifestyles is a deep sense of anxiety. We’re afraid that if we start thinking about other people and giving to other people, we will not have enough for ourselves. So we emotionally withdraw from becoming involved with others. We become apathetic and hunker down trying to protect what is ours. But the hoarding, hunkering down, self-protective approach to life actually increases our anxiety and makes us feel even more vulnerable to the forces that rob our resources and our security.
Jesus proposed a different way to deal with our fear of having too little. Instead of self-protection, Jesus said, “Give and it will be given to you.” He understood that the only way to be free from the anxiety of having too little is to open our hands in generosity towards others.
Are you anxious about your financial future? Are you anxious about the economy? The only way to have a heart free from anxiety is to follow the path of Albert Lexie, the shoe shiner, Greg Parady, the layaway Santa, and Jesus, the wisest, most giving man who ever lived. Being generous sets us free. When we are generous, we bring blessing to ourselves!