[caption id="attachment_1151" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="----Young Haitian men, carrying water to those in need----"][/caption]

When moments of disaster strike close by, near in geography or near to our hearts, it’s fashionable to give and talk about how much we should be doing for the people affected by the disaster. It’s hard to find reasons not to give our time, money and effort towards our hurting human family just a short distance away.

We feel good about ourselves when we retweet something, share a post on facebook, publicly question why our governments or big companies aren’t doing more. We tell ourselves that Haiti needs more advocates like us on their side. We might even silently compare ourselves to others who aren’t doing as much as we are to advocate aid for the tragedy. But the main reason we all aren’t giving more, is that we simply don’t have more to give.

According to Barna Research, the average American gives a shade over 1% of their income away. According to this article on MSN, 43% of Americans are spending more than they make each year.

But what if you knew the earthquake was going to strike Haiti. What …

[caption id="attachment_1117" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="----Just a small glimpse at the total devastation of Port au Prince, Haiti----"][/caption]

Back in 2005, Haiti gave the US $50,000 dollars in support of Katrina victims. That is almost DOUBLE (as a percentage of total GDP) what the US is giving to Haiti to help with the earthquake. Not to mention the loss of human life in Haiti will be 25-50 times that of Katrina.

But doesn’t the US’s $100 million sound a lot more generous than Haiti’s little $50,000.

Yup.

But not to everyone…

I’m reminded of a story about Jesus. One day he decided to carefully watch who was putting what into the “donation coffers” of his day. He sat quietly while the big, important, high income people made a pompous showing of their gifts, being careful to let everyone know just how much they were giving.

Then came this little widow, perhaps embarrassed to drop in her two small coins. This was too much for Jesus. His exuberance bubbled over into a little speech.
“This poor widow has put in more than everyone else! …

[caption id="attachment_951" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="----John's $950 Saturn is $10,000 cheaper than his truck and gets double the gas mileage----"][/caption]
I had lunch with John today. We did a little financial check up on how his debt reduction was going and talked about how we could maximize his efforts to continue his journey out of debt.
I told him how his story (see his full story here) has by far been the most popular thing I’ve written about on this blog.
He was thrilled at potentially giving someone else encouragement in their “journey out of a self-dug hole”. I asked him if i could share details.
“Absolutely.” He said.
Perhaps the coolest thing about his journey is that nothing miraculous or spectacular has happened to him along the way. He’s received no inheritance, hasn’t won the lottery, and hasn’t been given a single penny from Ed McMahon and the fine folks at the Publisher’s Clearinghouse. In fact, the value of his house has gone down $10,000 and he …

Last June I posted that my friend John had been able to pay off $19,377.03 of debt by using some cool strategies we worked out when I sat down with him.  Check out how he did it here.

He emailed me this weekend with an update. He now has paid off $32,076.89.

Wow.

Way to go John!!! So proud of the discipline and sacrifice you’ve used to make this happen.

[caption id="attachment_751" align="aligncenter" width="186" caption="--Larry Burkett 1939-2003--"][/caption]

It was 6:00am and I was sitting with my back to the door eating Fruit Loops. I didn’t realize he was there until he had pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.

My Fruit Loops quickly lost their luster.

Here was a guy that had founded Crown, sold millions of books, and was speaking to 2.1 million people on the radio every week. And was sitting across the table from me at breakfast. Asking questions about my life.

Didn’t he know that he was the interesting one?

In a few short minutes, he made an impression that would mark my life forever. It was evident that he genuinely cared about people; that he genuinely cared about me.

I am grateful that the Lord gave me 2 years of interaction with this humble servant.