Giving what you have been forgiven

Yesterday I was dumbfounded as a man told me he was going to donate $15,000 for us to paint a kids mural in the entire children's wing. I was shocked when he told me and had trouble even believing he was serious. His wife gave me a few nods to assure me that he was not kidding. As we talked about all of the details in using these funds he began to share his testimony of how God has provided for him.

The story that he shared was simply about a man who had nothing (not just money) and believed that God had given him everything. Humorously and yet coming from deep down in his heart he told me that when he became a christian he knew he couldn't do all those big things that a Christian was supposed to do, so he decided to start with a little one. That little thing was tithing. What was amazing is the fact that he wasn't even able to pay his bills and he started giving to the Lord.

Reading the story of the prostitute in Luke 7:36-50 I see a great similarity to what he shared with me. Jesus said in verse 47 "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." Jesus told the pharisee (Simon) that she washed his feet with her tears and yet he didn't even give him water to wash his feet. He also said that the woman would not even stop kissing his feet and yet Simon did not even give greet him with a kiss. Jesus essentially told the pharisee that he had given him nothing of this sort because he did not even begin to think that he even needed forgiveness but this woman gave him all that she had because Jesus was willing to forgive all of her sins.

This man I was talking to knew that God had forgiven him more than he could have ever imagined, because of this he continues to this day giving more than he could have ever imagined.
I look at my life and how little I am willing give. I may say to myself that I give little because I have received little. The problem is that I am looking at how much money I am receiving and not at how much I have been forgiven. Looking at it from this perspective I should be willing to give a lot because I am a wealthy man.