Story of Generosity

I got an e-mail from a friend last week about something her family experienced following the Generosity Conference at Community.  Our teaching team shared this story at our CCC last weekend.  I left out the names to maintain some anonymity.  Enjoy!

OK….I am not one to divulge personal financial details, but I still coming off my high from the Generosity Conference and am so hyped up about this I had to share it with you guys!

So a couple of weeks ago we received our Year End Contribution total for CCC.  I must admit, I was a bit taken aback by the total…$17,400.00.  I knew _____  and I had a good year and we were faithful in our giving, however, I did not realize the extent.  Although $17,400 may be a drop in the bucket for some, it certainly is not for us!  In fact, as I shared with some of you, when we got the personal invitation from Dave to join him during the Generosity Conference break out, _____’s first words were…”that ain’t good”!  Of course he was kidding, but it was funny.  Something that was so easy and natural for us to do was somehow getting “rewarded” for lack of a better word.  I don’t know…it just seemed weird.

Anyhow, I sat down yesterday to do our taxes for 2007.  While I knew we would be getting a refund, I was not prepared for the final number that appeared on my Turbo Tax spreadsheet.  $17,412!  The first words out of my month were “ Shut up!”  and “You’ve got to be kidding me.”  Although I said those things I knew instantly what it was….it was God blessing us for our faithfulness.  ______  and I are and have always been sold on the fact that God will provide for us in one way or another so it has always been easy for us to be cheerful givers.    But it is when He makes it so amazingly clear to us (as he did yesterday) that he knows our hearts and blesses us in ways that allow us to turn around and continue our “work” for Him and his glory…what an awesome thing is that?

Hope our little story brightens your day as it did ours!