Excited Giver

I was very surprised at church yesterday. Jim got up to talk about offering, and he’s been spicing it up lately. Yesterday was no exception. He requested that everyone that was an excited giver to please stand up. I would say that most of the room stood up. Then he told the ones that were excited givers to remain standing and then he asked the non excited givers to raise their hand if they wanted to be excited givers. I was shocked and amazed at what I saw. Let me say here that we were a couple of minutes late so we didn’t sit in the front like we usually do. We sat in the next to the last aisle so we wouldn’t interrupt anything. Since we were way in the back we had a bird’s eye view of the place. We did not see one hand go up (I know there were a couple that must have gone up), but there were huge patches of people that were sitting that did not raise their hand. The excited givers were told to go to the non excited givers and lay their hands upon them and pray that they would be excited givers. Those of us that were standing didn’t have any where to go. We just looked at each other because we didn’t see anyone with their hand raised.

Randy and I talked after church about how curious the whole thing was. We were wondering why the non excited givers didn’t even want to be excited givers. Randy brought up the fact that Randy and I aren’t really very evangelistic. We should be, but we’re not. If Kathy had been in front of the church and asked all the evangelistic people to stand up we would not have stood. However, if she had asked if all the people sitting that wanted to be evangelistic to raise their hand to be prayed for then I’m sure we would have raised our hand.

Another thing that I thought about yesterday was a family that sat a few rows up. I have no idea who they are. I’ve never seen them before. It was a man, a woman and a late teen daughter. The couple was in their late forties I guess. When the excited givers were asked to stand the woman stood up, but the man and daughter remained seated. Then when the non excited givers were asked to raise their hands the man and the daughter remained with their hands down. I felt bad for the woman. Giving is one of my favorite things to do, but for Randy it’s his greatest gifting. If he was all alone he would drive a crappy car and give away all his earnings. He loves to give. Because he loves to give then I love to give even more. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live with someone that did not like to give. My Mom has always been a giver so I grew up that way. My husband is such a giver that we just live that way. I think it would be so sad to live with someone that didn’t enjoy giving.