The Generousity of Others

I have been the beneficiary of many a gift over the years. I'm not going to lie. I have quite enjoyed it. Sometimes it has come as the result of being a youth pastor, sometimes it has come as the result of someone I know and sometimes it is just the result of being in the right place at the right time. You might call it luck. You might call it a gift. I just say thank you. Thank you very much! 

Ducks season opener
A friend of a friend gave us 2 tickets to the game. They were amazing tickets. We sat on the 30 yard line about 40 rows up. It included a parking spot in the stadium parking lot. Right up against the stadium! Oh, and money for food and gas. It was so much fun. Being club level I discovered that club level was more than just great seats, it was about community. These people know each other. They ask each other about family stuff and history and old games. They like sitting where they sit for every game. Oh, record breaking is fun to watch too. With a final score of 72-0 everyone on the team got a lot of play time. Plus, there is free popcorn.

Oregon State Fair
A friend of mine was running a booth at the fair and she gave me several tickets for my family and some friends. So I reciprocated the favor of the day before and we all headed to the state fair. We had a blast there. Thankfully we didn't pay for admission because they gouged as soon as we crossed through the gates of encumbrance. Everywhere we turned we thought we finally had a moment of debt free bliss. Then they would stab us with another dollar sign. We did begrudgingly pay our $30 so the kids could each go on 3 rides lasting a total of 148 seconds.

That being said, we got to go fishing out of a tank, watch some Arabian horses trot around, pet a rabbit, see a ginormous cow, watch some piglets drinking from their mother, catch the dogs jumping in the air and landing in a pool, see a magician who was pretty funny, see some demolition derby cars racing around and enjoy each others company. We laughed. We watched in wonder. We dreamed. We got tired. We headed home. It was quite the day. We ended it with a viewing of the movie Babies, where we got to see some babies drinking like the piglets did. (more for another posting another time).

I am very thankful for the generosity of others. I am glad to be a recipient, but I also hope I am more generous to others. Rick Warren once tweeted something to the effect of "I always want to out serve others." Be generous. Give out of what you have been given. Check out this story.

When was the last time someone gave to you?
When was the last time you gave to someone else?