What are you willing to give?

My parents were immigrants to Canada, and their story is one of love, hard work, determination, sacrifice.  However, their journey wasn’t easy and there were many times in their lives where they lived with very little.   Despite working so hard, there were times that they could have found themselves easily asking for and qualifying for government assistance to help them feed their family of 5, but they had that stubborn personal pride that made them simply make due with less and try to survive on what they had.

Growing up, my dad told me a story about how at one point in his career he decided he wanted to go into business for himself.  He had had enough of factory working and was ready to go out on his own.  What he lacked was the startup money that he required to begin that business.  He wasn’t able to get a bank loan, and so he humbly went to a couple acquaintances/friends that he knew to see if they would lend him the money.  He asked one and was refused, and then asked another.  This gentleman lived in more humble circumstances, yet lived well within his means and had savings.  He was willing to hand over $10,000 to my dad with a promissory note that it would be paid back in full during an allotted time.  It was paid back in full, because that was the kind of people my parents were.

I love hearing about how willing that man was to help out and take a chance on my dad.  That he would put great faith and trust in a hardworking father who was trying his best to make ends meet.   I would love to say that the $10,000 led to my parents becoming millionaires and living the dream.  Instead, he and my mom were able to run a seasonal family business from home for over 25 years...one that was an amazing amount of difficult work, but brought joy and happiness and beauty to others around them.  Money was still tight a lot of times, but they were able to live their dream.

This experience makes me wonder today, if a friend came and asked me if they could borrow that amount of money, how generous I would be.  I certainly have that amount in savings in the bank.  And really, compared to how much money that would have been 25 years ago, it is relatively little.   But still it is a lot.   Would I be willing to help someone out so they could improve their circumstances, with really no personal guarantee that I would get it back.
Sometimes I feel that as a society (and I include me in that category) we have become so obsessed with personal gain.  I certainly have gotten caught in the trap.  I want to have enough so that our needs are met with enough to spare.  Our goals are to save for the future, so that we can have the most comfortable life possible when we retire. So that we can have nice homes, cars, clothes and possessions, which let’s be honest, is what we use as a ruler to judge how successful a person today actually is.  In fact we often want to spend time with those people because they have the most toys and sometimes seem to be the ones having the most fun.

Maybe we aren’t being asked for a sum of $10,000 to help someone out, but can we spare something to share with someone at a food bank.  Can we open our eyes to see beyond the comforts that we live in to find someone who might be having problems paying their bills, clothing their family or finding food to eat.   Can we do that when its not Christmas time?

This past weekend my sister told me about how last week a man had asked my dad for some help doing some fairly hard labor.  At the end of the day, he asked my dad how much he owed him, to which my dad replied, “don’t worry about it.  In return, just go and do something nice for someone else.”  

 Both of these stories are simple ones, that won’t ever be in the evening news, there won’t be a book written about them, and others who pass them on the streets will walk past  without a second thought.   However, that is what I think makes up success, real character and true wealth.  Being able to give of one’s self, even if does require personal sacrifice and work, and even if it isn’t seen by others.

I am thankful for those who are willing to sacrifice what they have in order to help improve the lives of others and make them a little brighter.  Can we give, even when it hurts a little?