Intentional intentional intentional

This morning I got a phone call from a man who said that he had stuff to drop off for "The Garage Shop." Essentially we have a system in place where kids 1st-5th grade have a chance to earn Jesus Bucks by doing things like bringing their Bible to church, bringing a friend, or even if they are just going above and beyond what is expected of them at church. On the last Sunday of the month we open up shop for the kids. It's pretty much like Chuck E Cheese tickets with those type of prizes.
So the call comes in and I wait for him to come in and drop off the expected super balls and whoopee cushions. He strolls in with 3 backs loaded with stuff! We're talking Zhu Zhu Pets, (which if you aren't involved with children is a very hot commodity) Lego sets, and even a DS i with a game. Usually when you buy stuff for the church you get reimbursed and the whole time he was standing in my office I was thinking, "Well there goes my budget." He then mentioned a hard lesson that I had to learn that was pretty stinking expensive and said "Here's another lesson for you. Purposefully put money away that you can give away later. I can't afford to go get a cup of coffee this morning, but I could afford to go out last night and get all of this for you guys." He then went on to talk about how he and his wife intentionally put money aside every month just to give away. They don't touch it, and they don't need to. Every once in a while they find someone that could use their help and they don't even second guess helping them because they have been intentional about preparing to help. There was no thought of "Let us examine our budget and get back to you," or "Hey I've got the electricity bill to pay and that is consuming all of our extra resources right now." Because of this man and his wife taking that money monthly and putting a "To Give Away" sign on it they don't have to think about any extra money in the budget because they made it part of the budget, intentionally. Amazing... truly amazing.

Part of the deal with accepting this job was the understanding that I would raise my own salary, and I have to deal with the "Let me see if I have room in the budget." I'm not harping on people because I think they are tightwads or anything like that. This is more of an introspective look at my own intentionality. I'll admit that I do not set money in a pile to give away, and if I saw the pile of money there and there was a bill to pay I don't know if I would be strong enough not to use it. The look on this man's face when he talked about how he could just go through Toys-R-Us and spend this money without a qualm or the heart palpitations that it would give the rest of us was absolutely priceless. The money wasn't his any longer he was just managing it, and before he could do that he had to be intentional about giving it away.

Thanks Bryan.