Generosity – Part 1

I have tapped the keys of my keyboard here for several minutes, and I have spent many minutes, hours, days thinking over what I want to write here. The word generosity—the meaning it holds, the action it requires, the freedom and the pain it brings— has enraptured my thoughts of recent.

Generous/generosity is not an uncommon word though it may not be everyday we hear it spoken. Chances are, the meaning of it is not lost on you. But to clarify this is the meaning, taken from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Generous

a : characterized by a noble or forbearing spirit
b : liberal in giving
c : marked by abundance or ample proportions

I’ve been in Encounter School of Mission, and we often talked about generosity of our time and our prayers. Our pastor has done a sermon series on generosity. I have been exposed to the generosity of others support for me to be in Northern Ireland. I hear it all around me.

Possibly a month ago, in my email, or Facebook newsfeed, I was alerted to an offer of an audiobook that could be downloaded. I saw it had ‘generous’ in the title, and I decided I needed to get it. Not only was generous in the title, but it read excessive generosity. What?!? Excessive? The book, More or Less: Choosing to Live a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity written by Jeff Shinabarger is about a man’s exploration into generosity and how through many social experiments of his friends, his wife, and he himself found that we live in access and abundance. And in that excess we can change the world by being generous with it. I cannot recommend this book more. I listened to it in a day or two, and have played the chapters over and over again.

I am thinking that one post on generosity is not enough to get my thoughts out properly. If I tried, it would be a novel, so I’ll spare you and break it into bit size pieces. More or less, has challenged my thinking chapter by chapter. It breaks down what we think is ‘enough’ in areas of time, food, clothing, convenience. On more than one occasion, I was chomping at the bit to clear out my room, to give things away, to find where I have excess. And then seconds later, I see that I am in a place of need as well. I found a brokenness and weakness in me where I know I utterly depend on the generosity of others. Some of the levels of need recently have been more than I’ve ever experienced in life—that’s a painful reality.

There are a lot of things I have and want. There are a lot of things I have done. There are a lot places I've visited. There are many books I have read. There are many conveniences in my life. There are many friends in my life. I could keep going. For all that I have, there is an equal amount of what I have not. But all in all, there is abundance.

Out of my abundance, I am seeing opportunity for moments to change the world. Out of my need it shifts my perspective to understand those who’ve been in my place.

I can’t guarantee you’ll find a radical mind shift too towards generosity. Read this book. Listen to the sermon series. Or don’t. But I ask you to be willing to ask and be asked the question, where is there excess that you can live and give from?

Reminder

I found this posted here today and I felt it was another good reminder to me even today.

Lessons From An Ant

I was lying down in the sandy dunes of Castlerock Beach on Wednesday. It’s been a long few weeks with so much added on my already full load. So I was taking the day alone to gain some rest and some clarity. At the beach I was journaling, praying and listening. I’ve been struggling with a lot of things lately, among them has been comparing myself to others and a season of depression. Today these were my lament. As I spent the morning asking God to reveal himself to me, I was expectant He would answer. He did, albeit I was surprised how it came…

When you lie on the ground you see how many minuscule bugs there are. They do not put me off in any real manner, but they fall into the category of animals in my mind. If you know me, animals of any shape, size, or breed don't often get much, if any, of my attention.* As I shifted position in the sand, my journal was pushed aside and I saw an ant. Strangely, it had my immediate attention. We all know ants are characteristically strong. They can hold a ridiculous amount of weight in comparison to their body size. However, this ant was lacking on the strength side. It was on its back and seemed to struggle but with reason. It’s legs were wrapped around a piece of grass not much larger than an eyelash, and it couldn’t seem to turn over and get the grass on it’s back. The ant was refusing to give up. I was watching it; sort of cheering the ant on, hoping its innate strength was going to win the battle with the grass. After a few minutes it gave up the fight and just lay there. The ant then pushed the grass aside and looked like it was just trying to turn over. I’m now at about 5 minutes watching this ant.

Church Planting

I have known for a while, ok about 10 years, that church planting was going to be a part of my future. But it always seemed far off.

A few springs ago, God reminded me of it on a hike and this was my response:

What! Really?! No way? Crap. No- it will be good. Scratch that. it will  be great!. Seriously? Ok.

Where you go I'll go. Where you lead I will go.

When I came to Northern Ireland, I kind of knew, that God was speaking into this more, I just needed to listen. There were a couple of people who were in the process of planting churches. I considered them and prayed about them, but those don't seem right. Recently, far more consistently and clearly, God speaking to me about church planting. It doesn't seem as far off in time.

Things are shifting. Things are gettting exciting. Things are getting out of the comfort zone.

I guess I would continue to ask for prayer, guidence and support.

Graphics & Multimedia at Causeway Coast Vineyard

Sunday Services @CCV, photo courtesty of Gillian Higgins

Part of what I am doing in Coleraine, is interning for Causeway Coast Vineyard, for Graphics and Multimedia. I do many things there. Some times it does my head in and there is always a demand for another piece of designed work. But it excites me.
I've been a graphic designer now for many years and I love it, but I found a struggle some times working in a creative service agency because the work wasn't always personally on par with me. It didn't go to make the world a better place.

I love fonts, I love colors, I like order, but working with CCV I see doing design as so much more than that. It is an opportunity to communicate when words can't. If things I design can get into the hands, or before the eyes of someone who hasn't had the opportunity to know anything of the church, and by that chance, they walk through the doors of the church, hear a sermon, or sing a song that is life changing, and they commit their life to pursuit of the love of God, then a day behind the computer is a a good day for me.

RECreate

I am so excited to share this with you. RECreate.

As their website says :

Born out of a creative movement on the North Coast of Northern Ireland, RECreate is a collaborative endeavor amongst friends. Its purpose is to highlight, empower, and enable opportunity for the unique and talented artists that are based in or visiting Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. Whether it is music, words, or film…creativity is what drives us forward in our own lives, so we delight in encouraging others in their own pursuits. Our mentality is that creativity breeds creativity. We are RECreate.

wearerecreate,com

idea was born. They ran full steam ahead with it, and today it launched! I have been helping them with some of the graphics behind this so I've followed the progress before anyone else has seen it. It's going to be an amazing thing coming across the UK. Right now they're focusing on making music videos and writing reviews of the music, but there are plans for eventual growth into other areas.

I am so happy to promote them. Check it out.

wearerecreate.com

Encounter Gets Out Of Coleraine

With Encounter School of Mission, we have our teaching days and then we have our practical days. Often the practical days are in Coleraine, the town that we're based in. It's easy and we really focus on trying to impact our local community. But on occasion we go out to the town.

Recently we've gone to Derry and Enniskillen, both in Northern Ireland, and Sligo, in the south. They've been interesting trips.

Derry 

I really love meeting people while I'm traveling. Because of my personal interest in travel, I'm always curious why people are on the move so it provides opportunity to talk and pray with people. We had earlier in the year gone to another town on a train, and it was one of my favorite days. We'd missed our return train but I ended up talking to a woman called Ruby for 45 minutes. She and her husband were caretakers of a church, and she was traveling to get fitted for a leg brace. In that time we prayed for her leg, but she wanted to pray for revival in her church. Heck yes! Of course I wanted to pray with her about that. It was so good. Any how that day had made me love Encounter travel days, and my leaders knew this, so they asked me to lead the group to go to Derry.