Generosity can be as contagious as strep throat in a 2nd grade classroom. I learned about generosity by watching my dad and mom when I was just a child. They taught me that generosity has nothing to do with how much money you have and everything to do with the heart. Generosity is a heart condition and a good one. When I was in the elementary school, we would have special programs that the students had to pay to attend. If they didn’t have the money, they would stay in the classroom until the program was over. My dad had his own version of “No Child Left Behind.” He gave the teacher enough money to cover any and every student that didn’t have the money to attend. He also made sure that it was done in a way that no child was embarrassed and no one knew where the money came from. Throughout my life, I watched many similar acts of generosity by my parents.

Repeat what you learn, if it is a good thing.

Many years ago, I witnessed the contagious side of generosity. The ministry I was in took me to different churches preaching. I was usually in a different church every week, somewhere. Our family income at that time was whatever I was given by the churches that I preached in and we never knew what that would be. Sometimes it was enough to cover gas to the church and back and sometimes more. I remember preaching in New Bern, North Carolina and coming home with my car loaded down with baby stuff for our new baby. It was awesome!

I will never forget one experience. I think when I am 107 years old and have forgotten who I am, I will remember this night. I had preached for a week in this particular church. Carla and I had prayed for a good offering because there were bills to pay. On the way to the last service, I sensed God prompting me to give back everything that they would give me toward the purchase of a piano for their church. I felt myself pull back a little, seeing that we really needed every penny, desperately! “This can’t be God, because He knows how bad we need this money,” I thought. I had planned to be generous with some of it, but I hadn’t planned to give all of it. The nudge never let up. After wrestling with my lack of faith for a few minutes, I agreed.

The last service of the week ended and the pastor and I walked to the door of the church while they sang another song. He handed me some money and thanked me. When I saw how much it was, I almost fell over. It was around seven hundred dollars. I never expected that much so if I gave half of it, it would still be more than I thought I would be giving. Wouldn’t that actually be like giving more than all, if what I expected was less than half of what I got? That reasoning only works if God was as surprised as I was and I’m sure He wasn’t. Don’t misunderstand, I love being generous and giving but that was like giving two weeks salary away when your already bone dry. God had never failed me. My family had never gone without food or a roof over our head, though it seemed too close for comfort at times. God had always provided for our needs and I knew He would again.

I gave the money back to the pastor and told him to put it toward the purchase of a piano for their church. I think it took him back a little. He didn’t say a word, took the money, and walked to the front of the church. He told the church what I had done and asked if others might want to give something toward the purchase of a new piano. Generosity spread through that place like wildfire. One by one, people began to pop up from their seats and give. Within a few minutes, they had enough to purchase the piano they wanted. The atmosphere was electric. By the next Sunday, they would have their new piano. God took what I gave and started a firestorm of generosity and, it wasn’t over yet.

The pastor stilled the crowd and said, “We now have an opportunity to be generous one more time.” He told them that they would take up another offering for me, not wanting me to go home with no money. After the offering was, received, he handed me a thousand dollars. I couldn’t believe it and I think he was as shocked as I was. That was, three hundred dollars more than what I would have left with, had I not done what God prompted me to do. It was an amazing night. There was several thousand dollars given that night in a church with less than one hundred people in it. It was, one of those times when God reminded a group of people how contagious generosity can be and what joy it brings to the heart.

Having a great attitude is easy on some days and challenging on others. I have discovered that on the challenging days, I have to choose to have a positive attitude. An attitude is a mental position. To have a great attitude, we have to position our minds on the positive rather than the negative. We have to choose to find something positive in what appears to be a completely negative situation.

Several years ago, I was invited to speak at a youth camp for a week. That was when I was younger and physically able to handle the challenges of spending a week with seventy five, energetic, teenagers. I was going to take my family with me and with three younger children, we had to pack everything but the kitchen sink. The trunk was packed so full that I had to sit on it to get it to close. With the kids buckled safely in the backseat and my wife buckled in the front, we hit the road.

We were running a little late which is not unusual for us. I should have gotten a hint that I would spend my life running a little late. My wife is just like her mom. My sweet mother-in-law got a Sunday School award many years ago for being habitually late every Sunday! She has stayed true to her award. My wife is carrying on the legacy with amazing commitment.

Starting late, again, I was somewhat stressed at the outset. I usually tried to make up a little time by speeding toward our destinations over the years until the State of Virginia awarded me with a certificate of completion at Driving School for exceeding the speed limit too many times in Virginia. I think I graduated with honors. Anyway, we headed toward our destination. I decided that the reality of arriving late was not going to rob me of having a great attitude, so I took a deep breath and went with it.

The long ride had a way of challenging the attitudes of the kids, so I found myself giving them the attitude pep-talk. One that the family had heard a thousand times. What they didn’t know was that many of those pep-talks were for the purpose of my own attitude. Less than half way to our destination, in the pouring rain, I heard and felt that dreaded thump…thump…thump. You got it…a flat tire.

There is nothing worse than ending a pep talk on attitude with a flat tire in the pouring rain, with the spare tire hidden in the trunk under a mountain of junk. This was one time that I could honestly say I had junk in my trunk. Believe me, at that moment, having a great attitude was a choice because that’s not the first thing that I wanted to do. I caught my mind thinking words that are not legal for anyone to say, especially a guy that is going to talk to a bunch of teenagers about God, and who just spent 30 minutes dishing out the attitude speech. I told my mind to stop it!” Okay Bud, let’s watch you put some action to that attitude speech!” I thought.

To lighten our situation, I began to make jokes about it and told the kids to watch me change the flat in the rain. I got out of the car, opened the trunk and began to pile stuff on the side of the road. As you know, the spare tire is located under the floor of the trunk which means everything must come out. I got the spare and the jack out, and put all of the stuff back into the trunk. Yes, it was still pouring the rain. I was soaked through and through! I continued to make funny faces at the kids who were looking out the rear window laughing and making faces back at me. I took the flat tire off and put the spare on. Then I took everything out of the trunk again (most of it drenched), put the flat in the spare spot, replaced the jack and put all my junk back in my trunk.

The very moment I closed the trunk and started toward the car door, it stopped raining. I got into the car and we all sat there and laughed. I don’t think our car was the only place laughter was happening. I think all of heaven must have been laughing too. It was obvious that God was showing us His sense of humor.

I haven’t always chosen a great attitude when I could have and should have, but this was one of those times that I did. I chose to make something positive out of a negative situation, If it was a test, I passed that day! I learned that choosing to see positive possibilites in a bad situation will make a huge difference for everyone involved. That could have ended up being a misrable day for the entire Beverly family, but it actually ended up being a great day of fun and laughter. You may not be able to change your circumstance at this time but you can choose a great attitude in the midst of it. You never know, your great attitude may be what helps change your circumstance. At the very least, it can make the situation more fun for everyone involved.

Over the years, I have discovered that prayer means different things to different people. To some, prayer is a rigid religious discipline. To others it is the heartbeat of an intimate relationship with the Lord. Some people pray with thee’s and thou’s as if God speaks Old English and others get their lofty prayer voice on. Prayer takes on many meanings and postures and it is according to whom you are talking to, what that is.

Churches have their particular way of doing prayer too. In one church, the ritual for prayer was to ask everyone to come to the front of the church and kneel for prayer. They believed women had to wear dresses to church. I guess pants on a woman pushed some kind of heavenly mute button, which kept God from being able to hear their prayers. No woman in pants would dare even think about going to the front for prayer in this particular church. They considered that immodest. There was a Sunday at that church when two people probably wished one woman had pants on.

On this particular Sunday, the pastor invited everyone to the alter for prayer. As usual, they began to make their way to the front and find a place to kneel. One man had the habit of bending over until his head was on the floor with his hands cupped over his face. This man happened to be bald headed. He knelt behind a woman and slightly to the right of her. When he bent all the way over with his head to the floor, his head was directly beside her. During prayer, this woman did what no one is ever to do in prayer: She peeped! Wanting to be sure that all her parts were covered by her dress, for modesty purposes, she peeped downwardly, and saw what she thought was her knee sticking out of her dress. Like the modest woman she was, she quickly covered it with her dress.

The bald man, in a serious moment of prayer, now finds his head under the woman’s dress. I guess the woman had a big knee or he had a little head because she confused the two. It was his head that she tucked under her dress. I hope he didn’t peep like she did! He politely moved her dress from atop his head and didn’t miss a beat in his prayer. She must have felt her dress move because she peeped again. “How does my knee keep popping out?” She must have thought, because she covered it and this time she held her dress in place to be sure it didn’t pop out again. And again, the man finds his head under her dress. I hope he didn’t peep … again! The prayer ended and she realized what she had done when she saw that two knees and a bald head were neatly tucked under her dress. I don’t know if either ever spoke of the incident between one another but he did tell, that’s how I know.

Sometimes things happen to make our silly rules look silly, like the mandatory, woman must wear dresses to church rule. God doesn’t want your dress, He wants your heart in prayer. He loves you and wants to talk to you. Prayer is nothing more than a conversation between you and the Lover of your soul. He wants to hear about the things that hurt you and the things that bring joy and laughter. He wants to answer your requests and gives you grace when the answer is no or wait. Prayer is not a ritual it is the breath of life in your relationship with Him. Don’t worry about what you are wearing or where you are at, just talk to Him. Jesus loves you and is ready to talk with you at any moment!

Have you ever met anyone that was just plain mean? Did you wonder why they were so mean? Over the years I have met a lot of mean people. By mean, I am talking about hateful people. People that don’t hesitate to slice you up into little bitty pieces with their tongue. Having been in the ministry for many years, and the pastor of a few churches over those years, I have had ample opportunity to meet hateful people. They like to go to church!

I remember getting the call from a church that had just elected me as their new pastor. I was eager to get started in my new position. I was told that the vote was not 100% in favor of me getting the job. That did not surprise me since I had never seen church people agree 100% on anything except to agree 100% on never agreeing 100%. The person that felt the need to inform me of that fact, also felt the need to tell me who voted against me. “She is a hard one and doesn’t like people!” He said. “She is hateful and impossible to please!” He added. I stood there quietly taking in his words. If this were true, it wouldn’t be my first time dealing with someone like this.

My first impression of this woman was … the man was right. She was a hard one and a hateful one. I know that a porcupine spreads its quills as a defensive measure just as a skunk sprays its stink. Since I had been pricked and sprayed many times before, it would be nothing new. Someone once told me that hurting people hurt people and I have never forgotten it.

When I see someone like that, I usually see them as a small child hurting and not knowing what to do with the pain. Are they guarded because they were abused or just never felt loved? Are they defensive because they don’t trust anyone? Do they find it easier to be hateful than to be hurt again? There is usually some kind of deep emotional pain or even constant physical pain involved. On the other hand, it is much easier to avoid those people than to try to break through their defensiveness. Some refuse to let you break through and there is nothing you can do. Others are deeply begging (though you will never hear them say it) for someone to care enough to break through and there is something you can do for them.

I began with the church lady by just accepting her the way she was. Regardless of what came my way, I was determined to be kind and let love break through her defenses. It wasn’t easy, but in time it began to work. Patience and more patience are necessary. Also, you cannot take it personal when they lash out, so I chose to just take it like a man! It became a war of will’s and my will was stronger because it was based on love. I decided I was going to crazy love this woman until it drove her crazy and she would leave the church or she would break.

In time, I found out what the problem was, because she broke and shared with me. She ended up being one of my most loyal supporters but more importantly, she began to find healing from her pain. I love those happy endings but they are not all like that.

I have met just as many who refuse to deal with their pain, no matter how much you try to love them. The only way to know is to try. You may have someone in your life that is hard, hateful, and guarded. If you haven’t yet, you may try “Crazy Loving Them!” You will have to be secure in who you are to do it, because if your not, you will become defensive when they attack and you will attack back. You will also have to be patient. It takes time for love to soften a hardened heart. Go into it with the realization that love … patient, kind, unselfish, …. Jesus lkind of love is the hope! Thats what Jesus gave me and it worked. Let’s go Crazy Love somebody today!!!