Generous Givers and Christmas Blessings

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 12/18/20

            When Baptists realize they have sinned and are grappling with the right response to that sin, we call it “being under conviction.”  A news article in the Marietta Daily Journal this past Tuesday reminded me of two times when I was convicted of not being a giver.  I felt “condemned at the bar of my own conscience,” as one theologian puts it.

            The MDJ article reported on a speech by Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood.  At a Cobb County Chamber of Commerce gathering, Allegood encouraged business leaders to make giving a priority during the Christmas season.  Acknowledging that Cobb County is already a giving community, the mayor challenged Chamber members to dig a bit deeper this year to help the needy.

            The article pitched my mind back to the early years of married life when I almost abandoned tithing because I thought I could no longer do it.  Tithing was just too difficult, or so I thought.   In the third month of my non-tithing, I sat down to pay the monthly bills. Within moments I decided I could no longer contend with the gentle tweeting of my deceased tenant farmer father who had perched on my shoulder for the last two months.

            Beyond tithing to his church, my father would often reach into his overall pockets and retrieve a dollar for tramps at the train depot where he parked in town on Saturdays.  He would do the same for poor Choctaw families walking past our house toward town.  Before writing bills on that third month, a thought bombarded my mind: if Daddy can tithe, anybody can tithe.  The church I was attending at the time would not have missed my tithe check, but the small country church of my youth probably would have missed my father’s, despite its small amount.  However, the size of our checks was not the primary issue. The issue was the bar of our own conscience.

            Mayor Allegood’s plea also turned my mind back to 30 plus years ago when our oldest child was a freshman at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.  A private Christian college and not a cheap one, Samford was Christy’s deep desire.  She being a high achiever and a precious child, my wife and I knew we had to make her desire a reality.  We knew we would have to double up on two of our three financial principles: spend wisely and save methodically.  As for the third principle, give generously, we would just have to see.

            Toward the end of Christy’s freshman year, we received an envelope in the mail with no inside address.  It contained an anonymous note with kind words and a check for $1,000. A month later, a check for $500.  The third check was for $1,000 again.  Toward the end of Christy’s second college year and after several more checks, the total came to $10,000. I began to pray my benefactor into the choicest spot in Heaven whenever his or her time came. 

              At Christy’s college graduation, instead of giving full attention to the tremendous words of the great Coach Bobby Bowdon, I stood at the bar of my conscience.  Some voice other than my father’s was whispering: “Rich folks should give but poor folks should too.  You’ve got to give more.”

            In December of 2000, Governor Roy Barnes spoke with conviction and power to the incoming freshmen class of the General Assembly.  “I believe,” he said, “that one reason Georgia has fared better economically than our sister states is that we tried harder to do the right thing about race.”  From his words I took spiritual import.  You do the right thing; you get blessed.  Not always instantly, but eventually.  My supposedly well-off benefactor and my definitely poor father were blessed, I believe, because they blessed.  Whether with race relations or with giving, doing the right thing is rewarded, though not always materially.

            There are numerous organizations that need our support.  There are also individuals we meet daily who have needs.  Why not this Christmas an outrageous $50 bill or more for a restaurant server? Why not anonymously pick up the tab for a young family in a restaurant whose overheard conversation revealed they could use the help this Christmas?  Since Marietta has been dubbed the most generous city in America with populations above 50,000, maybe we in the county or in other Cobb County cities should emulate Mariettans.

            Those who know the Mayor and the Governor know they are givers of their time and resources.  I want to be like them and my dear old dad. 

Let’s all end this difficult year with giving.  If we do, Christmas for sure will be Merry.

 

Roger Hines

12/14/20