On Being Generous

By Todd Sylvester, Mobile, Ala. - St. Ignatius

We all have standards that we live by. We draw lines, either in our heads or literally in our environment. When someone asks me for a “favor”, I always want to know what it is before I commit to it. Especially from some of my friends who have a tendency to push me to the limit of generosity (like the guy who asked if I could pick something up for him using my truck- it just happened to be a piano in Birmingham!) I continue to ask God to stretch me beyond my comfort zone of giving. I ask for greater opportunities to die to myself. I ask for God to show me deeper ways to give. I honestly don’t have much money to give away. I tithe and then give what else I can, but I do have talents that I can give away. I love helping out people in need. I am conscious about where I have drawn the lines in my own life and ask God to help me move them. When I hold back and say, “No, this is as far as I will go!” That’s when God will tenderly invite me to more.


A friend and I were talking one time about what our wives expect of us and what we normally do around the house and he was very critical of me. He told me that I blew it long ago. I asked what he meant and he said I should have drawn the line in the sand when I was first married (like he did) because as soon as you do something once, your wife expects you to do it all the time! To which I responded, “So does God.” Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:18 “Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future, so as to win the life that is true life.” I’m not where I need to be yet. I still have lines in my life where I stop giving, but with God’s Grace I’ll get them all erased before I take my last breath- may you do the same. Peace, Todd