In 2018 I was a second year seminary student, spending my days parsing Greek verbs and reading Systematic Theology textbooks. For a Bible nerd like me, this meant that life was awesome.
However, to say that money was tight during that time would be an understatement. God had provided for us by giving Alli an amazing job at the seminary, but we had made the decision that I would be a full time student so that I could take more classes each semester and finish school quicker.
As you can imagine, we didn’t have a ton of money. And because of this, each semester when my tuition was coming due was a very anxious time.
Over and over again, we were able to make it work. But there was one bill especially that I truly had no idea how we were going to pay. I looked at it so often the number is still ingrained in my mind: $4581.
There were so many prayers leading up to the day that bill was due, “Lord, how are we possibly going to pay $4581? I know that you’ve brought us to seminary, you want me to spend this time training for a life of ministry, but we need a miracle.”
I won’t belabor the point, you’re reading a blog post on generosity so I’m sure you know where this is going. Two days before the bill was due I checked my account balance and it no longer said $4581. Instead, it said $0. My entire debt had been paid.
Even more amazing, though, was the name of the person who made the payment: “Anonymous.” The person who gave us this miraculously generous gift chose to remain anonymous. To this day, we have no idea who it was.
I want to share that story because so often our generosity is another way just to make much of ourselves. Why is every building on college campuses named after someone? Because that’s how you get people to be generous… You make the giver’s name great.
Alli and I, however, were given one of the greatest gifts of our life by someone who didn’t even care to get credit. Now that is generosity.
So, if the person who paid that bill is reading this just know, God used you mightily in the lives of a young married couple. And your generosity has inspired us to be more generous to others!
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