Archives by: Gary Hoag

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

“We got a problem. I know that’s not correct grammar, but it sounds better. We got a problem!

Worldwide, we’ve developed twisted perspectives on generosity. Notice how I said worldwide. This isn’t an us problem or a them problem. It’s an our problem. I’ve witnessed this problem first-hand in more than 40 countries, with each culture carrying its own version of twisted.

First, please allow me to illustrate how I see it. Each of us can be placed into one of four camps: Givers, Receivers, Neithers, and Eithers.

Givers recognize they have achieved some level of financial success (with varying definitions) and feel some combination of opportunity or responsibility to give. When this perspective is combined with action, they become givers. However, Givers often struggle to receive because, well, they are givers. They are blessed. They are “successful.” Therefore, they perpetually live on the giving side of the ledger.

Receivers recognize they fall on the lower end of the economic scale. They see how people all around them are better off, leading them (whether voluntarily or begrudgingly) to categorize themselves as receivers of generosity. This generosity might be formal (governmental or private programs) or more casual (gifts or favors from people in their circles and community). Notice how I didn’t call them takers. Sure, there are takers in this camp, but takers are the minority. Most receivers have humility (and sometimes shame) with their status as receivers.

Neithers, the most common group in America, believe in personal responsibility, independence, and autonomy. They believe people ought to help themselves, but if they don’t (or can’t), there’s someone else responsible for stepping in. Neithers closely associate their hard work with their money, and have a desire to use said money to progress their family’s interests (security, wealth, comfort, lifestyle, or status). Neithers are proud to make it on their own. They’d rather suffer harsh consequences than take a handout from someone. “I don’t need help” is a common phrase Neithers would think or say.

Finally, we have Eithers. Eithers are a rare breed, both in America and abroad. Eithers are hard to pin down. They might be upper-class, middle-class, or lower-class. On one hand, they recognize they are blessed in some way. Perhaps not as much as their friend, neighbor, or family member, but blessed nonetheless. This mindset compels them to act with generosity. On the other hand, they live with a posture of humility and understand they need to be willing recipients of generosity from others. It might be during a hard season of life, in a particular area of life, or simply to allow others the gift of being a blessing.

Eithers are weird! One minute, they are trying to make ends meet, and the next, they are openly giving to someone else. This could even happen on the same day. Talk about giving/receiving whiplash! It’s like the widowed single mom from yesterday’s post. She struggles at times, and finances can feel tight, but at the same time, she lives with joyful, open-handed generosity.

Eithers are awesome!!! While they are a rare breed today, I dream of a day when Eithers comprise the majority of society; an army of Eithers! Love, generosity, humility, community, joy, contentment, and meaning. I think Eithers have it figured out!”

Travis Shelton in his The Daily Meaning blogpost entitled “Givers, Receivers, Neithers, and Eithers” posted on 22 May 2025.

I just spent four fantastic days with Travis Shelton. He’s catalyzing a movement of generosity. He’s an Either with a rare blend of wit and wisdom.

Where do you fit? Read the post again if necessary and place yourself as a Giver, Receiver, Neither, or Either. How might God want you to grow? With brilliance and balance, Travis helps us see the difference between these four groups and why we should aspire to creating a world of Eithers.

Travis does not know it but one of the ten GTP values is sustained interdependence. Our founding board member, describes it in this way. It’s the “communion of givers and receivers as equals at the foot of the cross” practicing giving and receiving with perpetual dependence on God. Or, as Travis would put it, GTP exists to create a world of Eithers.

We are doing it! The other day I had a mentoring moment with a new GTP staff member in Pakistan along these lines. I said, “Emmna, I want you to spend much of your first year learning and growing. You need to learn to be a good receiver to grow as a giver.” She thanked me. It clicked in her thinking.

God wants us to acknowledge that everything good comes from Him for our enjoyment and sharing. Hat tip to Travis. Subscribe to his blog. I am a daily reader. “Givers, Receivers, Neithers, and Eithers” was an epic post. I thank God for the mutually edifying four days we just got to spend together in time as Eithers in Colombia.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

“What Is Meant By Winning

You win your minute if, during that minute you either:
1. Pray.
2. Recall God.
3. Sing or hum a devotional hymn.
4. Talk or write about God.
5. Seek to relieve suffering of any kind in a prayerful sprit.
6. Work with the consciousness of God’s presence.
7. Whisper to God.
8. Feel yourself encompassed by God.
9. Look at a picture or a symbol of Christ.
10. Read a Scripture verse or poem about God.
11. Give somebody a helping hand for the Lord’s sake.
12. Breathe a prayer for the people you meet.
13. Follow the leading of the Inner Voice,
14. Plan or work for the Kingdom of God.
15. Testify to others about God, the church, or this game.
16. Share suffering or sorrow with another.
17. Hear God and see Him in flowers, trees, water, hills, sky.

We never attempt to keep a minute-by-minute record (excepting perhaps occasionally for an hour), since such a record would interfere with normal life. We are practicing a new freedom, not a new bondage. We must not get so tied down to score keeping that we lose the glory of it, and its spontaneity. We fix our eyes upon Jesus, not upon a clock.

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “What Is Meant By Winning.”

I hope this exploration of the Game of Minutes has blessed you like it has me. Today marks the last post.

Notice the list of activities Laubach sketches. Are you overdue for any of them? I am not trying to rob you but help you. I am finding that I get more out of this than I put into it.

It’s because when we fix our eyes on Jesus, not upon a clock, we make the best use of time.

Simultaneously, by giving Him that time, Jesus does unspeakable, indescribable, and amazing things in return, that no person could every predict or imagine.

Remember that if you want to grow in generosity, you must learn to receive first. I know no better way to live the receiving and giving life than to play the Game of Minutes.

The more we play the more we win. And the more we win, the more everyone around us wins.

Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. Acts 16:1-5

“This game is not a grim duty. Nobody need play it unless he seeks richer life. It is a delightful privilege. If you forget to play it for minutes or hours or days, do not groan or repent, but begin anew with a smile. It is a thrilling joy—don’t turn it into a sour faced penance. With God, every minute can be a fresh beginning.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Radiant Religion.”

I was sitting with Travis Shelton on his last day in Colombia (yesterday). He drew a chart that had a gradual incline and then a sharp rise. He proceeded to say, that sharp rise, marked the day we met.

Using the language of Laubach, Travis basically testified that he has enjoyed a “richer life” since the day we met. The best part was, that basically, my interpreter. Carlita Archila, echoed the same thing.

What’s the point here? It’s not about me, for sure. It’s not about Travis or Carlita either. It’s about you. Do you want a richer life? Think about what I am asking you.

I am really asking you if you want to grow in generosity or if you want to stay on your current trajectory. The choice is yours.

One more story. Today’s Scripture shows Paul and Silas meeting Timothy and inviting him to join the team. One meeting, shaped the future of his life.

When departing for this trip, Paula Mendoza and I prayed for God to bring a person that was bilingual who could champion the Palmful of Coffee vision. He did.

Eliana Ramírez walked in the room on the first day. She said, “I am not sure why I am here. I was the third choice from my ministry. It sounded interesting so I said, Yes.”

Eliana is 29, recently married, bilingual, and represented a ministry in a key city in the central part of the Coffee Triangle. Oh, and she expressed, that she had told her boss she felt led to look for a new job.

By the third day she testified, “The last three days have been life-changing for me. I have experience mindset change (from dependency to discipleship) and want to advance the Palmful of Coffee vision coupled with Orden, the peer accountability group (like ECFA in ECFA) established in Colombia with help from GTP.

Further discussion has revealed that she represents the answer to our prayers to the dollar. She prayed for a new job at the exact salary we put in the budget.

She wants a richer life and she found it with the way GTP encourages people to connect with and serve God. I praise God we exhibited radiant religion, and she wants more than grim duty. What about you?

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

“Humble folk often believe that walking with God is above their heads, or that they may “lose a good time” if they share all their joys with God. What tragic misunderstanding, to regard Him as a killer of happiness! A growing chorus of joyous voices round the world fairly sing that spending their hours with God is the most thrilling joy ever known, and that beside it a baseball game or a horse race is stupid.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “It is for Anybody.”

The biggest thing I learned yesterday from the indigenous people, humble folk, with whom we will do Palmful of Coffee is this. They work like ants. Remember Proverbs 6:6-11?

They don’t work loudly or draw attention to themselves. They have much to teach us because their work in picking coffee and turning it into amazing beverages for us is not easy.

I am also learning that I often care more about things like baseball games than the things of God or what humble folk can teach me. God is stretching me in Colombia.

We will roll out something big by learning from each other and focusing on the things God cares about. In so doing, we will unleash rich generosity. This is what I am learning in real time.

And humble folks who are unashamed to say they work like ants are teaching this to me.

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3

“The notion that religion is dull, stupid and sleepy is abhorrent to God, for He has created infinite variety and He loves to surprise us. If you are weary of some sleepy form of devotion, probably God is as weary of it as you are. Shake out of it, and approach Him in one of the countless fresh directions. When our minds lose the edge of their zest, let us shift to another form of fellowship as we turn the dial of the radio. Every tree, every cloud, every bird, every orchestra, every child, every city, every soap bubble is alive with God to those who know his language.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Infinite Variety.”

God is doing something new in Colombia. It’s official. 14 people made a bold step yesterday to activate Palmful of Coffee Colombia. To learn more about the coffee community of Colombia we toured a coffee farm.

I shot the header photo of the Andes mountains from the top of the hill after learning the challenging task of picking coffee cherries. I will appreciate each sip of coffee more the rest of my life.

It’s work. They pick every bean by hand here. Some 2.5 million people work in the coffee farms of some 50 million people in Colombia. That’s our target audience. It’s the fresh work a team will pursue to engage in mission.

To learn more of the visions that have inspired us, click to watch the Handful of Rice and Palmful of Maize videos. Through the COMIBAM network we will activate this starting in 2025. Praise the LORD.

Is God calling you to something fresh? Is it time to get out of your comfort zone, turn the dial, and see what God might have for you? Shake off the sleepy form of devotion. Do it today.

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love Him – 1 Corinthians 2:9

“It is obvious that this is unlike other games in many respects. One difference is that we all win. We may not win all or even half of our minutes but we do win a richer life, which is all that really matters. There are no losers excepting those who quit. Let us consider some of those prizes:

1. Doubts vanish, we are more sure of Him being with us than of anybody else. This warm, ardent friendship ripens rapidly until people see its glory shining in our eyes—and it keeps on growing richer and more radiant every month.

2. We have daily evidence that God helps our work, piling one proof upon another until we are sure of God, not from books or preachers, but from our own experience.

3. When we are playing this game our minds are pure as a mountain stream every moment.

4. We begin to understand their bliss for we share it with them.

5. “When Jesus goes with me, I’ll go anywhere.”

6. It becomes easy to tell others about Christ because our minds are flooded with Him. “Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

7. Grudges, jealousies, hatred, and prejudices melt away. Little hells turn into little heavens. Communities have been transformed where this game was introduced. Love rises like a kindly sea and at last drowns all the demons of malice and selfishness. Then we see that the only hope for this insane world is to persuade people to “practice the presence of God.”

8. “Genius is ninety per cent concentration.” This game, like all concentration upon one objective, eventually results in flashes of new brilliant thought which astonish us, and keep us tiptoe with expectancy for the next vision which God will give us.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “The Prizes We Win.”

I have arrived safely in Medillín, Colombia, with Travis Shelton (GTP Palmful of Coffee Catalyst) a long-time friend and dear brother from Iowa, Paula Mendoza (GTP Global Administrator) and Carla Archila (GTP Spanish Translator) from Guatemala.

Medillín sits at the heart of the Coffee Triangle in the central part of Colombia. The evil one has given this nation a global reputation for corruption. We aim to write a new story linked to credibility and generosity instead.

It’s only possible by multiplying surrendered people. That’s the game here. And the prize will be a nation. If you look on a map, our travels will take us from Medillín, south to Cali, then north to Cartagena, and we finish in Bogotá.

Yesterday I told you that Palmful of Coffee was inspired by Handful of Rice and Palmful of Maize, but I did not share any statistics. Today consider that after more than a century, Handful of Rice led the entire region of Mizoram, India to Jesus.

In only three years, Palmful of Maize directly engaged 96,743 children in Malawi and indirectly touched another 886,342 children in the villages where the movement spread. That’s about one-third of the children of Malawi.

It has brought revival to the church. I mention this because as I speak this morning on Mark 6:30-44 and engage with a dozen influential Christians from the Coffee Triangle, I pray they play the Game with Minutes with me.

If we give ourselves to the Lord with the game, and teach people to give God what they have, it can transform a nation. That’s our goal here. God help our minds be “pure as a mountain stream” and give us strength to win these prizes for those around us, for nations.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:25-33

“The first price is pressure of our wills, gentle but constant. What game is ever won without effort and concentration?

The second price is perseverance. A low score at the outset is not the least reason for discouragement; everybody gets a low score for a long while. Each week grows better and requires less strain.

The third price is perfect surrender. We lose Christ the moment our wills rebel. If we try to keep even a remote corner of life for self or evil, and refuse to let God rule us wholly, that small worm will spoil the entire fruit. We must be utterly sincere.

The fourth price is tell others. When anybody complains that he is losing the game, we flash this question back at him: “Are you telling your friends about it?” For you cannot keep Christ unless you give Him away.

The fifth price is to be in a group. We need the stimulus of a few intimate friends who exchange their experiences with us.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Some Prices We Must Pay To Win This Game.”

Laubach links the cost of discipleship with prices to pay in the Game with Minutes. He reminds us that we cannot keep Christ unless you give Him away. Yesterday I had a low score.

I wrote about troubles and then had a day filled with them. Things did not go as I hoped or expected. Most of the time, the troubles threw off my minutes. I found myself pouting how my last day at home before a trip went.

Perhaps you can relate? Let me give an example. At the end of my day the eye doctor told me that they would leave a set of contact lenses for me outside their office door. Though they closed, they said the building would be open. It wasn’t.

I drove there for nothing, and left empty-handed and disappointed. In the car on the way home I was reminded by my Lord Jesus that he too was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” That touched me in a deep way.

Anyway, the best part about the Game with minutes is that today is a new day. So that my service in Colombia is as fruitful as possible, I want to lean into paying these five prices. On more thing about this trip.

It’s complex. Four cities: Medillín, Cartagena, Cali, and Bogotá. Activating Orden, the peer accountability group like ECFA in USA, and Palmful of Coffee to foster generosity with accountability among the coffee community, largely invisible indigenous people, to facilitate their participation in Christian mission.

Palmful of Coffee is inspired by Handful of Rice (India) and Palmful of Maize (Malawi).

It’s been about two years in the planning, since my last visit in August 2023. It starts with a vision retreat with about a dozen influential Christian workers from across the Coffee Triangle. Best part, my mate Travis Shelton will join me and help activate this vision through the generosity of his network.

More later. For now, I appreciate your prayers for safe travel and fruitful service through 30 May 2025. And pray for many good days of the Game with Minutes. Thanks. I pray that for each of you too.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

“Troubles and pain come to those who practice God’s presence, as they came to Jesus, but these seem trivial as compared to their new joyous experience. If we have spent our days with Him, we find that when earthquakes, fires, famines or other catastrophes threaten us, we are not terrified any more than Paul was in time of shipwreck. “Perfect love casteth
out fear.”

This booklet on the Game with Minutes is good for people suffering from illness at home or in hospitals. Nurses remind us that the thoughts of people turn toward God when sick as at no other time. Patients who are convalescing have many idle hours when their minds reach up toward God. Playing this game produces a perfect mental state for rapid
recovery.

Those who are seeking to be aware of God constantly have found that their former horror at death has vanished. We may have a new mystic intimacy with our departed loved ones, for though unseen to us, they are with Christ and since He is with us they are with us as well.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Troubles.”

When the apostle Paul starts his second letter to the Corinthians, the year is around A.D. 57. The persecution against the Christians had heated up. By this time he been driven out of Ephesus. He could have felt discouraged.

Instead, he starts the letter with praise. God had been generous to him. God provided compassion and comfort. God wants to do the same for us, so that our generosity can bless people experiencing troubles.

Today Laubach instructs us on how to link the Game with Minutes to tough times. Brilliant. Life is full of hard times. Imagine the uncommon impact we can have when we do this.

Let me state some hypothetical examples. We might experience long lines that cause unfortunate delays in our schedule. Whilst others complain in the lines, we can play the Game with Minutes and pray for all those around us.

Or we might have a surgery coming up that will require rehab. We can complain or use that time to play the Game with Minutes and consider it not time wasted but time spent inviting God into our rehab experience.

Or we could have an unusually challenging schedule which requires extra burdens on us. Like doing more household chores or dog walks or anything. The Game with Minuts says to exchange murmuring with inviting God into those activities.

Imagine the uncommon generosity people will experience from us as a result. Let’s do this.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 2 Peter 1:5-7

“Sweethearts who have been wise enough to share their love with God have found it incomparably more wonderful. Since “God is Love” He is in deepest sympathy with every fond whisper and look. Husbands and wives, too, give rapturous testimony of homes transformed by praying silently when together. In some cases where they had begun to give each other “nerves,” they have found, after playing this game when they are alone together by day or by night, that their love grew strangely fresh, rich, beautiful, “like a new honeymoon.” God is the maker of all true marriages, and He gives His highest joy to a man and wife who share their love for each other with Him, who pray inwardly each for the other when they are together looking into one another’s eyes. Married love becomes infinitely more wonderful when Christ is the bond every minute and it grows sweeter as the years go by to the very last day. Imagine, too, what this does for the children!”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “God and Love.”

I want to start by thanking my wife, Jenni, for directing me to this book. She has helped me understanding the “game of minutes” which she plays as good as anyone.

If you are reading this and you have not read recent posts you might be wondering what the “game of minutes” is. When we fix our thoughts on Christ every minute, we invite Him into every aspect of our lives.

When we see others and pray for them, it changes our interaction with others. When we do different activities, we do them with Christ. It changes both us and the outcome of the activity. Some moments I succeed and others I fail, but I am learning.

Here Laubach invites us to bring this game into our home. Of course it should start at home and spread from there. Think about it. Giving each other love is better than giving each other nerves.

Imagine if we all had a testimony of this! What does Christ want for our marriages? I am convinced this is the kind of activity Peter had on his mind when he wrote today’s Scripture passage.

When the LORD takes pleasure in anyone’s way, He causes their enemies to make peace with them. Proverbs 16:7

“God is interested in our fun as much as we are. Many of us talk to Him during our games. Some of the famous football players long ago discovered that they played better if they prayed all during the game. Some of the famous runners pray during races. If a thing brings health and joy and friendship and a fresh mind, God is keenly interested, because He is interested in us. While on the playground, do not ask to win, but whisper: “God, get Thy will done exactly. Help us all to do our best. Give us
what is far more important than defeating our opponents — make us clean sportsmen and make us good friends.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “During Play Hours.”

When we bring God into every area of our lives, He lavishes more generosity in unexpected ways. For example, He can make our enemies at peace with us. I am praying that for so many countries at war today.

Furthermore, when we bring God even into our recreational lives, rather than allowing competition to divide us and tempt us to cut corners, we become clean sportsmen who make good friends on and off the field.

Someone asked me recently what sports I follow. I really don’t have much time to follow any sports but if I do, it’s for sure, Major League Baseball. The person quickly quivered as the Colorado Rockies are, by far, the worst team in baseball.

I surprised them by saying that I am a fan of the game. I don’t have just cheer for one team. At first it bothered him. Then after explaining that I enjoy fantasy baseball with long time friends and have players from around the league, he got it.

What if you bring God into your summer fun. He cares about gardening, corn hole, dog walks, fly fishing, hiking, and so much more. He will teach us things when we do that make us better people.

We in turn become more generous people. Want that for your summer (in the northern hemisphere)? If so, bring God into your fun and watch Him give you blessings that are more important than you could ever imagine.