Change: Give what you got

We in the Sigmon family are currently undergoing a lot of change. My job has been moved from Charlotte to Cary, NC and we are in the process of making the transition from firmly rooted family in Mount Holly with established friends and a church we love to a situation ripe with uncertainty and opportunity. I want to share the principles that have kept us grounded and moving forward with great anticipation and not fear during this period of change.

The first foundational building block is generosity. Generosity in this sense, means investing in the people God has placed in your life for you to influence. Investing as a financial term is a way to take current assets and turn them into future gains. Financially, investing your money and letting it work for you has replaced the old images of stuffing your money under your mattress or digging a hole in your backyard. Investing in people is taking your current assets (time, talent, etc) and turning them into exponential future impact. The only way for your gifts and talents to have impact beyond your sphere of influence is for you to give them away. Generosity of yourself is the key to enduring change initiated by powers outside of your control without any regrets. If your current situation forcibly changes: loss of job, death of a loved one, job location change, whatever, being able to focus forward rest in the knowledge that you gave everything you had in that past situation. The supreme example of generosity in your current situation is Jesus. Jesus was a healer, a teacher, a friend, and a savior. He had time for individuals and groups and seen by his interactions, be it with a woman at a well, his disciples, or feeding 5000 people, he always gave everything he had in those situations. The key to generosity is overcoming the desire to fulfill our own needs and seeing the needs of others. It is difficult in our current over scheduled, over stimulated society. We always feel like we are way too busy to invest in others. The truth is we choose what our impact and legacy will be by how we use the gifts we have been given. Will we invest them for exponential impact, or will we stuff them under our proverbial mattress by hoarding them all for ourselves? It is a lot less painful to deal with change if you have invested rather than living with the regret of the impact you could have made.