Giving & Generosity 10-Week Challenge Our Story... A Story of a Loving God...
Monday, July 28, 2008
Our story begins as newlyweds when we combined our incomes and began measuring up with our friends lifestyles and spending money where society tells us we should. We amassed a mountain of debt and suffered privately as our income fell short of our mortgage payment, 2 car payments, a motorcycle payment and a ski boat payment. Twelve months the same as cash and easy credit made it possible for us to live beyond our means. We were living the American dream when in actually it was a nightmare. Credit cards were a way to keep up with the Joneses and live life large. What do you have in your wallet?
All this time we were sitting in church listening to messages about tithing and living according to The Word. It went over our heads for many years. I can specifically remember a pastor telling us that through faithful giving 90% would go farther than 100% of our income would ever go...right!Well after hearing that message at several different churches we finally decided to start giving more than what amounted to tipping a server at a nice restaurant. We started with 5% and waited for the blessing to flow and they did not. So we grudgingly starting giving 10% of our incomes even though we could not afford it. The blessings still did not flow. Had those men of God been wrong?
We finally got to a church that helped us get our lives going in the right direction. Our giving began to be joyful and the blessings started. We made a major lifestyle change and shed our world view of materialism and societal expectations. Some of our friends noticed our more simple lives and could not make sense of it.
As our view of finances changed from what our incomes could do for us, to what our incomes can do for God's Will and the churches mission it became easier to pay off debt. At the same time we began to give to appeals for gifts beyond our tithing. We began to accelerate our debt reduction and our incomes grew. Not only that we began to receive money from unexpected sources.
After many years of frugality we were finally debt free but continued to live well below our means. We went from being negative on our budget to being able to save and have a financial margin. This brought a peace we had never felt before. We decided to give a larger percentage and to also give generously to everything from church capital drives to benevolent funds. The blessings began to flow. Our careers flourished and The Lord provided in ways that were beyond earthly comprehension.
Our more simple lifestyle allowed us to save more and begin to build for the future. We then stepped out and began giving well beyond our tithe. And the blessing began to grow. It is counterintuitive to the world view and it is called "faith." The Word is very clear here. Our story gets better and better as time passes. Our dual income no kids (I'll spare you the acronym) started to seem as though we were still missing out. We began to seek The Spirit's guidance for our future. We really thought we were destined to get rid of our "things" and enter the mission field. It turns out our mission was to adopt three boys, brothers desperately in need of a stable and loving home.
I prepared to leave a good paying job to become a stay at home dad to our boys which was another step out in faith. In about a week we are getting ready to celebrate our 4 year anniversary of the boys moving in with us. All this time God opened up the floodgates and blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. This forum is not the place for all the details but when I prepared to resign my position my employer was acquired and I received a severance...read blessing. At almost exactly the same time Janie received a promotion into the executive ranks and her salary increase was almost exactly what my income was, blessing.
We could go on and on with stories about how God has been faithful to us as we ramped up our giving. It continues today and we have faith that it will never end although it may not always be financial. One of the ways in which we were blessed in our journey was through the Good $ense ministry, developed by Willow Creek. Janie has been a proponent of this mission for over a decade. CCC is a Good $ense church and we urge anyone needing help getting started with financial problems to take a class. It turns out that all those messages about giving and generosity were spot on. And I welled up with emotion listening to Tim's message today. He is spot on.
We have an awesome God...
-Mark and Janie
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This story really inspires me. Thank you for your honesty. It really helps for us to identify with someone else who has been there and to know that God is faithful and will pull us through this as well. Thanks so much for sharing this. |
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Thank you for sharing your journey. Thank you for being an example! Yes, God is AWESOME! |
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Mark & Janie Here, Please read the blog entry titled "Between the Lines..." It is a follow up to this story. After reading this post is seemed too much like a fairy tale. In the new entry we get into the difficult times. |
