Milena Zvetkova: One act of kindness can set a cascade of generosity in motion

“One morning in December of 2012, at the drive-through window of a Tim Hortons coffee shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a customer paid for her order and then picked up the tab for the stranger in the car behind her in line. Then that customer paid the bill for the following customer in line — and so on, for the next 226 customers, in a three-hour sequence of spontaneous generosity.

It turns out that such “pay it forward” chains are not unheard-of at Tim Hortons (though they are usually much shorter), and news outlets have reported the emergence of many such chains in a variety of restaurant drive-throughs and tollbooths throughout North America. Last year, a Chick-fil-A in Houston experienced a 67-car chain. A few months later, a Heav’nly Donuts in Amesbury, Mass., had a run of 55 cars.

Why do these things happen? … We conclude that observing an act of kindness is likely to play an important role in setting a cascade of generosity in motion, since many people can potentially observe a single act of helping. But we found that it was receiving help that sustained the cascade as it spread through the group.”

Milena Zvetkova in The Science of “Paying it Forward” in The New York Times on 14 March 2014. To read the research, visit the University of Notre Dame Science of Generosity archive.

If one act of kindness can set a cascade of generosity in motion, what is something you can do today? Perhaps this act will be for someone you don’t even know or who could never pay you back, but who likely might pay it forward out of what they have. Who knows? You might find it so rewarding that it might turn into a daily routine.

“Jesus wants each of us “out there” going into “all the world” to engage in a high-risk, high-reward lifestyle to extend His kingdom on earth. He is calling and commissioning us not to retreat to safe havens but to permeate and transform every sphere into which He sends us–clothed not in our own strength but His.”

John D. Beckett in Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006) 202.

Coming out of my meetings last week with the Kern Foundation regarding the integration of faith, work and economics, and my teaching at TEDS, two things have become clear to me that surface in this quote from Bev Callison, a panelist who spoke to my class on Saturday.

First, we must all obey the call of Jesus to permeate all spheres in the world, regardless of our occupation, taking our Sunday faith to work with us on Monday. Second, we must rely on His strength and ongoing sustenance every step of the way so that in whatever circles God leads us, we are the fragrant aroma of Christ and agents of Kingdom transformation.

“The Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction. True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.”

Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium 88.

Two aspects of this quote by Pope Francis moved me. First, I love his point that it’s risky, messy and challenging to live out the gospel. Second, I appreciated that the gospel calls us to tender, self-giving service in community.

I am lousy at tenderness. I am more of a bull in a china shop. If you see any tenderness in me it’s the gospel at work in my life. I am learning that my role in living out the gospel is to love and serve others and allow Christ’s generosity to shine through me (cf. Galatians 2:20).

Such a revolution in tenderness beckons the lost to be reconciled to God. No wonder the Gospel leads us to this! This is how the incarnate Christ drew people to Himself.

Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. Mark 6:7-13

“Jesus instructs the Twelve more about what not to take than what to take. With the exception of staff and sandals, He prohibits them from taking what would generally have been viewed as necessary travel provisions…this rigorous list deprives the missioner of any sense of self-sufficiency…and left the missioners dependent on God’s provisions for them through the beneficiaries of their ministry.”

Robert Guelich in Word Biblical Commentary on Mark 1-8:26 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1989) 322.

This is a teaching weekend for me at TEDS and with the words of Jesus, I am reminding students that Jesus repeatedly deprives us of “any sense of self-sufficiency” not to try to bankrupt us but to teach us to trust in God’s faithfulness.

Lord, I pray that You would help me to learn how to only spend what flatland currency I need to in order to take care of my family’s important needs, and to invest all the rest in Your kingdom, Your eternal treasury. Lord, please deepen my appreciation and understanding that kingdom currency, backed by the Eternal Treasury, is the only medium of exchange recognized by the Son of God whose government will last forever. Amen.

Harden Wiedemann wrote this “Transformational Prayer” for his life and leadership with Alpha USA, inspired in part by the format suggestions of Rick Laymon. He shared it with me in our email correspondence on 4 June 2014.

I am sharing this prayer today because Harden expressed that it’s helping to calibrate the compass of his life and leadership to the Kingdom path. I plan to share it with Alpha USA leaders today in Chicago and with my students at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School this evening. I love how it drips with humility and sincerity and pray it blesses you. Maybe it will be something you print or adapt as a prayer for your own journey.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:33-34

“Significantly though, the reasons for this act [giving to the needy] have to do not with the claims of those needing alms, but with the disciples themselves. Giving their possessions away constitutes providing themselves with treasure in heaven, where it is safe from earthly contingencies.”

Sondra Ely Wheeler in Wealth as Peril and Obligation: the New Testament on Possessions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) 64.

We often think about giving to the poor only in terms of the need of the recipients. Wheeler rightly emphasizes the greater need related to the giver. If you as a giver want a purse that won’t wear out and a treasure that will not fail, store up treasure in heaven through generous giving. And don’t do it because I said so! These instructions are from Jesus.

Today I have meetings with leaders of the Kern Foundation in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I am thankful for this family that seeks to give away all their wealth to build God’s Kingdom. To do this, they have had to be very intentional. Do you have an intentional plan linked to your generosity?

“We resolve to renounce waste and oppose extravagance in personal living, clothing and housing, travel and church buildings. We also accept the distinction between necessities and luxuries, creative hobbies and empty status symbols, modesty and vanity, occasional celebrations and normal routine, and between the service of God and slavery to fashion. Where to draw the line requires conscientious thought and decision by us, together with the members of our family.”

Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism, Evangelical Commitment to Simple Lifestyle (March 1980) “Personal Lifestyle” paragraph 5.

We returned home from Guatemala and will begin packing to move over the next ten days or so. This has prompted many conversations as a family. What possessions will we give away, sell, or take with us? This prompted me to research statements such as this one for discussion.

I will not start helping the family move until Sunday because my return home is more like a layover. I am off to Chicago today to teach at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, so join me in praying for my wife and teens as they start the packing process without me. Also click here to enjoy a four-minute video recap of our trip to Potter’s House.

He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. Psalm 113:7 NLT

“The driving force for Christian witness in the context of transformational development is to be sure that credit is given where credit is due. We must take great care that we point not to our own sacrifices or professionalism, and not to the effectiveness of our development technology, but to the fact that the good deeds that create and enhance life in the community are evidence of the character and activity of the God of the Bible, the God whose Son makes a continuing invitation to new life and whose Spirit is daily at work in our world.”

Bryant Myers in Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development revised and expanded (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2011) 244.

Transformational development is a term that describes God’s work among the poor where He is lifting the needy from the garbage dump. When we participate with Him in this context, our driving force must always be to bring glory to God so that the world may see and know that the God of the Bible is alive and at work.

Too many ministries attribute their results to their creative strategies and their stability to financial sustainability models. Such thinking may reveal that their trust could be misplaced. They may be depending on themselves and money to make things happen and, consequently, giving credit to someone or something other than God.

God’s plan for ministry to the poor has not changed. It always has been and always will be the same. He desires His people to enjoy and openhandedly share the resources He has already entrusted to them so that their good deeds will reflect His love to the world. As God sustains and constantly replenishes this work, all the world sees, and God gets the glory.

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. Deuteronomy 15:11

“The emphasis here is not on the fact of poverty but instead, as in so many other passages, on loving and helping–always helping. As we all know, there are plenty of poor and needy people in our land, and God expects us to be openhanded toward them…

God’s vision is a big one, and his plan is to build a team of followers to live out that vision. There is a place for you on that team. In fact, there is a “no cut” rule, so you can rest assured that there is a role for you to play.”

Roland Hoksbergen in Serving God Globally: Finding Your Place in International Development (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012) 6.

As today is our last full day in Guatemala, this quote is timely. I am teaching, my wife is helping plan for VBS among the Treasures and our two teens are building bunk beds in shantytown homes. With openhanded generosity we will empty ourselves thanks to the strength and supplies that God provides.

Tomorrow we will board a plane and head back to Denver. We are handing the baton of service here to friends from Indiana who arrived over the weekend, the Rathbun family. God will undoubtedly raise up others to follow them. Will you be play a role in God’s big vision here or somewhere else among the poor through loving and helping?

“The antidote to the poison of greed is generosity, says Paul in his letter to the Christians of Philippi caught in a downward spiral of “selfish ambition or vain conceit” (Philippians 2:3). Paul challenges the Christians to get into the mind of Jesus, an incredibly generous Jesus…

Jesus gave up the comforts and joys of triune eternal companionship to enter into the messiness of living with sinful, broken humanity—the hypocrisy, violence, sickness and greed. Jesus came to share a new vision for living with humility, compassion and mercy.

Jesus demonstrated His generosity by getting involved in making things right here on earth. Wherever Jesus encountered human need, people received more than they hoped for. The disabled paraplegic received restored mobility and a relationship with God. The hemorrhaging woman was healed in body and restored to dignity in community. Jesus did more than expected…

Jesus lived generosity in His incarnation, His ministry and His death. Paul says, Let this generosity of Jesus soak into your mind and permeate your worldview. Let it transform your selfish and greedy behavior. Be generous like Jesus was generous (Philippians 2:1-11).”

Clarence Rempel in “The Generosity of Jesus” in The Mennonite: A monthly magazine for members of Mennonite Church USA, 17 March 2009.

Visiting the destitute in the shantytowns of the garbage dump in Guatemala gives my family a glimpse of what Jesus did when he left the comforts and joys of heaven to enter the messiness of earth.

He did not send help, but became help for us. He made things right and always did more than expected. This is yet another reason why we love serving here…because when we do, we imitate the generosity of Jesus.