My friend and pickleball buddy Jim and I were sidelined, waiting on a pickleball court to be vacated. The topic of me teaching piano came up and I asked him if he played any instruments.
“Oh, yes. I play guitar,” he said. “Or at least I used to. In my younger days, it was my life’s goal to own a Martin guitar.”
“Was it as wonderful as you anticipated?” I asked.
“Definitely. I saved my money for many years before I could finally afford one in my 50s. It was the most beautiful guitar I’d ever seen.”
“Do you still have it?”
Jim paused and suddenly found his shoes interesting. “No,” he said, his voice softened.
“What happened to it?” I couldn’t help my curiosity at the way he seemed to retreat from the conversation. Like he wasn’t sure if he should say more.
“Well,” he hesitated. “I only played it a couple times.”
“What?” I couldn’t hide my astonishment. “Why?”
Jim appeared to come to a decision about his answer. I suspect he figured I’d think he was crazy if he told me the truth. “The second time I played it in church, I felt God telling me to give it to a specific young man in the audience. I resisted the idea, but finally bought a guitar shipping box and sent it to him. Boy, was he surprised.”
I could hardly believe my ears. Who does this? I pondered this concept of radical generosity for a long moment before asking Jim, “Did you regret it?”
“Yeah, I regretted it,” Jim admitted honestly. “But I knew I had to do it. God wanted to bless him with it. Always thought I’d buy another one someday. But I never did.”
Jim is now in his 70s.
I wish I had the means to buy him a Martin guitar. But I suspect Papa God will have a whole room of his mansion in heaven stocked with them.
“Live generously,” (Matthew 5:42 MSG).
Who in your life would you label as radically generous? Have you ever done anything crazy generous like that yourself? How do you think Yahweh would view it?
