FOL

If we're honest, most (or all?) of our giving is out of our abundance. The time or money we give takes something from us, but it doesn't leave a mark. In other words, we carry on and a day later don't have any residual impact of the gift we previously made. But what if generosity looked different? Could it be that giving in a way that really costs us something is not painful but rather joyful?

How are you using your time these days? Some are busier than before the pandemic, and others are bored with a lot of extra time to kill. Some have added disciplines, others have dropped all semblance of discipline. But what if an intentional 1-hour Zoom meeting each week could completely change someone’s life – their business, their family, their own sense of purpose. If you had the opportunity to be a part of that, would you? The option is real, and it’s yours to take.

With news about the coronavirus breaking so rapidly, it’s hard to anticipate what the latest “scoop” will be. I recall the late Gilda Radner’s “Saturday Night Live” character, Roseanne Roseannadanna, who used to say, “It’s always something!” Bad news seems to beget bad news. But out of any crisis, important lessons can be learned. And most of the time, good emerges out of bad, pulling silver linings out of dark clouds that hover over us.

We live in troubling times, from corona viruses to computer viruses, financial uncertainty to political instability, from physical war to cyber war. On top of that, we also face relational, spiritual, and physical struggles in the course of life. Still, the Bible gives us hope that not only can we survive, but flourish, grow, multiply, and bear fruit. And it's all possible because of one great promise: "I have overcome the world!"