I once heard a Mennonite missionary tell the following story.
When he was growing up in the US, their family would, after steeping a tea bag, dry it out on the counter. When they had a good number, they sent them overseas to families doing relief and development work with Mennonite Central Committee. The idea was that the missionary would enjoy the tea left over in the bag.
Yes, the gesture was rooted in a place of generosity and one has to marvel at this superlative frugality. But the error is fairly obvious. Why didn’t the supporting family just send new tea bags? Then, the recipient could enjoy the first use themselves, as well as the subsequent use.
While this seems obvious, I am often guilty of a similar mindset. That is, generosity often does not receive pride of place in my plans.
In our culture, big things (career, large projects) are often dedicated to the accumulation of money or status. The leftovers (of time, money) are for generosity. Sometimes.
But what if we committed to the opposite? What if we offered the big things to generosity?
This is the idea behind our dedication of all profits of Sorin Starts a School to the work of the Holy Cross in Dhaka, and namely the flourishing of Notre Dame University Bangladesh.
We are pumped to share that we are on schedule and set to ship out the books this May. Here’s to offering the big things to generosity, to love.
Paul's Blog 