Take a humble one pound coin. What could it become? How much impact could it make if it was handled with maximum generosity? What goodness could it set in motion? Let’s get creative and see the potential for generosity multiplied. We might never look at a quid the same way again.
Choose how you’ll complete today’s act:
Green:
Take £1 and get creative. For example, buy a stamp and envelope and write an encouraging letter OR put it towards cleaning products to give someone’s car a wash.
Amber:
Take £5 and buy food for someone homeless. Take the time to ask them what they would like before you go off and buy it. Then take even more time to chat with them when you hand it over.
Red:
Take £10 – or more – and invest it in a charity you want to support.
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See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.
[James 5:7]
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Your thought for today:
Tea. And biscuits. And a warm place to smoke a cigarette that had been hand rolled using the discarded butts that littered the high street. But mainly tea.
That’s how it all started.
My mum wasn’t a visionary. She was just a forty-something housewife whose breast cancer was in remission and whose compassion was spiked every time she came out of church and saw the handful of homeless men and women sitting on the bench, drinking.
To her, it all seemed so simple. She had read her bible and knew what it said about the poor, the sick and the outcast. She knew what needed to be done.
And so she did it. With the help of a couple of friends and plenty of prayer, she started to get to know the men and women on the bench. She knew little about their world – and even less about the complex, often lethal cocktail of problems that attach themselves to homelessness – but she had a house and a kettle and a good stock of biscuits. So she invited them around for tea.
I was 16 at the time. Most afternoons I’d come home from school and find the kitchen full of cigarette smoke and easy laughter. I’d join the likes of Dublin John, Billy The Glue, Tommy Busby and others sitting around the table. I’d watch as Mum smiled and listened and showed love in the simplest of ways.
Almost three decades later, that generous compassion has been multiplied in the most wonderful way. Mum and friends established a charity which has grown to become an award winning provider of support to homeless people. It is no exaggeration to say that thousands of people have been helped, rehomed and seen their lives transformed.
And it all started with tea and biscuits and the grace and love to open a door and invite people in. But mainly tea.
Written by Craig Borlase
Craig Borlase is an author, ghostwriter and editor of Stewardship’s SHARE magazine. Find out more at http://www.craigborlase.com
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