Confessions of a Novice in Generosity: How I Got Here

My wife and I celebrated our 15th anniversary recently and I have much to thank the Lord for His favor and grace as well as a lot to confess to the Lord about the condition of my heart. By God’s grace, we have managed to live with a single income with a family of five in New Jersey for 14 years, stay out of debt, save 20% down payment for a modest home, and save modestly for our retirement.

People ask me how we did it, and I tell people that we keep it simple. We honored the Lord with His tithe, save a set amount for our retirement, and spend the rest modestly. For the first 10 years of our lives, we spent no more than $1050 on our housing cost here in Bergen County and we keep our food cost low at an average of $1.50 per person per meal by cooking at home. We have lived so long with a bent toward not purchasing unless we absolutely needed it. We have kept our vacations simple and local, kept our presents affordable, and our hobbies generally low-cost.

If we hadn’t lived this way, then we wouldn’t be where we are today with no debt besides our home mortgage, paid for used cars, and me still pursuing my call to help people and churches toward financial discipleship and generosity. Because the size of our family’s cup has been rather small, we are where we are today.

Confessions of a Novice in Generosity: What Got Me Thinking

In the recent months as I have been studying and praying, learning about generosity, my wife and I had a rather interesting conversation that really got me thinking.

I had recently preached a sermon at my church on generous living when I realized that the laptop my 8th-grade daughter was using was just not working very well. It was a 6.5-year-old laptop and the touchpad was just not responding. I was so annoyed with the computer and wondered how my daughter was using this laptop during the school year without complaining to me about it. When I realized this, my default-mode lead me to start considering what else we had she could use. When I mentioned to my wife that we had another laptop in the basement, she told me that it was even older than the one my daughter was currently using. She was correct, but I thought to myself, if it works, what’s wrong with using it?

In my sermon, I shared about my childhood and how I had grown up living with a scarcity mindset. How I felt poor growing up, not feeling free to have things. And then, it was that moment when my wife pointed out that if we live this way, then we will also be passing the same sort of poverty mindset to our children.

It was as if God himself was speaking to me through my wife. God had been challenging me to be more generous knowing that we have a generous God in the person of Jesus Christ. I knew I had to change. After all, we had saved up some money for our family for this sort of thing.

Our family doesn’t generally buy new things, but for this purchase, I felt the Lord speaking to me and begin by being generous toward my family.

So with that call toward generosity by God, we decided to buy new laptops for my daughter who will be starting 9th grade and my son who will be starting 7th grade in the fall. Now, their homework is to do the research on the web for the best laptop under $500 and be ready to explain the pros and cons of the computer they want.

Confessions of a Novice in Generosity: My First 30 Days

I’ve been praying about generosity, and 'generosity' has been the keyword on my heart.

I have been asking God to help me lean toward generosity, and instead of doing the minimum, God has been prodding my heart to be more generous. I have to confess that it’s been hard because the poverty mindset creeps in, but God reminds me to trust him more than what is in my wallet.

I have been paying $20 for my haircut, typically about once a month, and I would just tip $2 which was still above my budget. Yes, but haircut budget is $20, not $22. But I decided to tip him $4. He thanked me for the tip for the first time.

I was meeting clients at a diner, and I usually tip 15-20%, but this week, I felt the Lord prodding me to be more generous. So I tipped over 50%. This was really God pushing me outside of my comfort zone. Freeing me from the power of mammon.

I haven’t given cash to a homeless person in about 20 years. I used to be proud of not giving cash to the homeless person who could potentially spend that money on alcohol or drugs. So I would say to myself. I would usually buy them food instead but this week when I ran into a homeless person, and I got the same pitch about needing money for transportation, I really felt God telling me to just give. Yes, he might very well go and buy a drink instead of buying that bus ticket, but on that day, God wanted me to give cash.

I gave a meager $8 to this homeless man, but as I took out the money he said he needed, and handed it over to him, I felt the Lord gently showing me that a lot of the times when I didn’t give money, it wasn't because I was really concerned about their wellbeing but because I thought the money in my wallet was mine instead of God’s.

I drove away from the homeless man this week, and I told God that I didn’t know how it will all work out mathematically but I want to learn more about generosity and that I want to be more generous with God’s money, God’s time, and God’s talents he has given me to manage for his approval.

These are my confessions as a novice trying to live out the life God has given me to steward for his approval. I have a long way to go but I’m excited to learn as the Lord leads.

Ready to Start?

Are you ready to get started? Contact me at paul@jangfinancial.com if you want to help disciple your congregation as God-honoring stewards from a biblical perspective, or if you yourself want to grow as a steward seeking to practically manage the finances better to hear from our Lord upon his return, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21, 23)

Paul Jang

Pastor | Personal Financial Coach to Individuals & Financial Stewardship Ministry Consultant for Churches

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Paul Jang served as a full-time ordained pastor for close to 15 years in Bergen County, NJ. Currently, he serves as an associate pastor at the Church Gathered & Scattered and as a personal financial coach and a financial stewardship ministry consultant for churches at Jang Financial Coaching LLC (jangfinancial.com), he serves Christ-followers and churches position toward financial peace, independence, and generosity. He is a certified Ramsey Solutions Master Financial Coach, a certified small group facilitator of Compass, finances God’s way, and a member of Christian Stewardship Network. Paul has been serving as a financial counselor for about decade and enjoys running while listening to a good audiobook on anything financial. He is happily married to Joy and committed to raising 3 future stewards in God’s Kingdom.

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