I’ve already told you about the Hug Heard Round the World, one of the simplest but most impactful moments in my life.
When I was thinking about it afterwards, I realized that there were plenty of other simple moments that made a huge impact in my life. Let me tell you about another:
On Thursday after morning worship, many participants had already left, and the rest were packing up and getting ready to leave. I wasn’t leaving until the next day, so I was in the NUC staff office, helping to clean and pack up. Whatever needed done.
We realized that we had hundreds of left over bottles of water, and nothing to do with them. We would have to throw them out, if we couldn’t find a better way to get rid of them.
“Why don’t we give them away? Who wants to take these to the bus loading area with me and give them away?” I wasn’t the one to suggest it, but I immediately volunteered. Honestly, I was just looking for a way to get out of the office.
We piled the bottles on a dolly, and we wheeled them over to Moby arena, where hundreds of people were hanging outside in the sun, waiting for their turn to take a shuttle to the airport. We wheeled casually into the center of this crowd, and started handing out water.
There’s something about a grateful smile that fills me with such an unusual happiness. It’s different from the happiness I get from other sources. Different than when I hang out with my friends. Or watch a funny movie. Or pet a pug.
These moments of happiness are great, and I love them (especially petting pugs) but if i had choose between doing any of these, and being generous to complete strangers, I would go with being generous.
And when I think about it, a lot of the things that make me happy at other times, include an element of generosity. Like when I’m petting a pug. If the pug wasn’t into it, I wouldn’t be into it. (I really like pugs.)
There’s just something about generosity. Handing out water. Hugging. Pugging. Whatever.
Generosity. Of your time. Of your spirit. Of your emotions. Of your empathy. Of you life.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that generosity and giving figure prominently into the Sermon on the Mount. Live generously. Love generously. Be generous. This is at the heart of being a Dunker Punk.
Dunker Punks 