Generosity - a Heart Issue

When I was an elementary kid, there was a point when our public school required us to fundraise .  We would be tasked with the burden of unloading a case or two of chocolate almonds to unsuspecting neighbours to raise money for something.  One year in particular stands out in my memory; that winter, my mom drove us from our lower-class neighbourhood to a ritzy suburb.  We figured that the wealthy residents living in these beautiful mansions would surely be willing to spare a few bucks for chocolate almonds, right?  Especially when they were being shilled by a bright-eyed, visible minority kid shivering in the winter cold?

No such luck.  We barely made any sales in that neighbourhood, if they even bothered to open the door for us.  We tried again the next night, and a few nights after that, but in wealthy neighbourhood after neighbourhood, nobody wanted to buy chocolate almonds.  On the last night before we had to turn in our profits, we still had like two cases of almonds left over.  In an act of sheer desperation, my mom drove us to a neighbourhood that. we were not familiar with at all.  It was an older area, kind of run down, and we figured it was a lower class neighbourhood (not unlike our own, but even older).  We didn't think we would make many sales, but gave it the ol' elementary try anyway.

And we sold out.

Nearly every door we knocked on answered, and we discovered the warmest, friendliest people there.  They sometimes had to hunt around for enough change, but home after home would buy a box or two or three, and sometimes they would apologize for not being able to buy more than they did.  A few times they would comment that they never get kids out in their area to buy almonds from.  Some would offer for us to step inside out of the cold.  When we were nearly out of stock, a few even invited us to come back if and when we had more almonds to sell.

Now, these weren't wealthy people living in big, beautiful houses with landscaped lawns.  Many of these homes were the kind that might even have a boarded up window, or clutter on the front porch, or patchy lawns and old vehicles parked out front.  This was the "wrong side of the tracks," so to speak.  But the people inside were generous, warm, and kind.  It was an early life lesson not to judge people by their possessions.

And so this lesson has borne out again and again in my life.  I see it in my FB community giving groups, where people who have little offer what they can when someone else in the community voices a need.  I see it in the generosity that is extended to me by those who may in fact have less than I do.  Generosity is indeed a heart issue, and those who show a giving spirit tell you who they are by their actions.

Now, it's not like I'm saying only the poor are generous.  There are plenty of generous bazillionaires too, and many wealthy people whose giving will never be publicized because they don't want the left hand to see what the right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3).  But generosity is a heart issue, not one defined by possessions, and yet it is easy to make the assumption that those who have more will give more, and those who have less will hold on to what they have and not give at all.  I guess I challenge that assumption, because I've known of very wealthy people who have not shown even the slightest of generosity towards others, like the wealthy Kerrisdale family who continuously short-changed our nanny when she babysat for their multiple kids, or the 10% tippers at high-end restaurants.

I don't know where I'm going with this post, except to say that we should probably examine our own hearts to make sure that we aren't stingy jerks, but instead be generous where we can, and when we can.  And when we consider others, never assume that anyone is generous or stingy based on where they live or what they own.  Sometimes, the best people and the worst people are not the ones you think.