Generosity in the Life of Stuart Scott

As I sit and watch a playoff game in the National Football League, I find myself thinking about something that I heard earlier this week. It was a major event in the world of sports that Stuart Scott, an analyst for the sports network ESPN, passed away last weekend.

Thoughts and memories go out to the family, friends, and colleagues of Stuart Scott, a man with a generous reputation.

Now, I’m no sports junkie. I enjoy watching American Football and there’s one sports radio show I listen to. That’s about the extent of my interest in sports. So, when I heard that Stuart Scott has passed away, I had no idea who that was or what he had done. It was only in the course of hearing about him through his colleagues that I learned about him.

There was something that was said about him that has stuck with me. Cari Champion, a television personality, spoke in memory of Stuart Scott. After she started at ESPN, he would send her text messages of encouragement to her, timely messages that would lift her up at critical moments when she needed them. It was until she was telling this that some of the other anchors with which she was talking said, “He did the same thing for all of us.” It was then that Cari Champion used a particular word to describe Mr. Scott: she called him a generous man.

Now, generosity is a powerful word to me. It is something that I would like to write about more sometime soon, but I believe that generosity is one of the clearest marks of a person who is trying to follow Jesus. When I read the Bible, I see that the God of the Bible is a generous God. He created the entire universe, and he created it extravagantly! There is a mind-boggling number of stars in the universe that we have discovered, and as far as we can tell, there’s many more. When mankind rejected him, God spared no expense – not even his son – to create a new way in which we can come to know him. That is extraordinary generosity.

Now, when most people think of generosity, they think of financial generosity. And that is important. However, I think that generosity extends beyond what you do with your money into the areas of how you approach your relationships with others, how you treat others, how easily you forgive those who hurt you, and more.

I guess this sticks with me because I’ve become one of those task-oriented people. I have to-do lists for my to-do lists. I like setting goals, and then meeting them. I also recognize the danger in that, because it is easy to get so caught up in getting things done that I put people – friends, family, and others – in second place, and the Bible makes it clear that loving God and loving people is at the heart of following Jesus (Mark 12:30-31), not getting stuff done. Not that there’s anything wrong with getting stuff done, but there has to come a point where people come before our to-do lists.

Now, I do not care to speculate on Stuart Scott’s faith or lack thereof. Like I said, I didn’t even know who he was until I heard that he had passed away. I just find that as I consider my way of living and loving those who am I closest to, I am challenged to greater generosity by Stuart Scott: greater encouragement, greater selflessness, greater kindness.

What God Sees in You

So after a long, unintentional hiatus, I find myself writing a new post for this blog. Part of it is the New Year; I really enjoyed the short amount of time when I was regularly writing for this blog, and starting this year I would like to get back into it for various reasons.

One large reason for me in particular is that I am going to be leading a Bible study with my local church, sort of. It’s a responsibility, a leadership position. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I need to be the one who talks all the time, but it does mean that in some form or fashion, people are going to be looking to me in various ways for various things. And that scares me in some way.

Now, as I have spoken with friends and family, they’ve reassured me that I’ll do a great job. I’ve seen some of those short sayings like, “You are never too small for God to use you,” and “God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.” Yet there is something about these interactions that I have not found fulfilling. They don’t really answer the thoughts of my heart and soul.

So, as I was thinking about all of this, my mind happened on the story of Gideon, found in Judges 6. When the angel appears to Gideon, he is beating wheat in the winepress because the Midianites are stealing food from Israel so that there isn’t enough food to eat. In other words, Gideon is either hiding or has been hidden away. Based on that alone, he appears either a weakling or a coward.

Then, when the angel of the Lord appears to him, he says, “The Lord is with you, o mighty man of valor!” (v. 12) Gideon protests the first part of that statement by asking how it’s possible for God to be with Israel when they are being starved by their enemy, but the part that I clue in on is the second part. The angel of the Lord called Gideon a mighty man of valor, i.e. a strong and courageous person, at a point when there has been no evidence of such traits in Gideon. If anything, he looks like a weakling at best, a coward at worst.

So why did the angel say this? Because God knew what Gideon was going to become, because God knew what Gideon had the capacity to become. And the same is true for those who are trying to follow Jesus: God knows who we are and he knows who we can become. I think that oftentimes, when I read that God knows me better than I know myself, I’m intimidated by that because, well, I know that there’s sin in my life that even I haven’t noticed…but I often forget that this also applies to the good in us.

This, I think, is a deep and profound truth. God declared Gideon to be a mighty man of valor, even though on the surface Gideon wasn’t that person. But God knew what was in Gideon, and he knew that Gideon could and would become that mighty man of valor who would lead God’s people. The same is true for you. God knows the good you can do and the person you can become. Not only has he put good things in you, but if you are trying to follow Jesus and have his Spirit within you, He is in you. We can’t just allow ourselves to say, “I can’t do this; I don’t have it in me.” If the Spirit of God is in you, then you will always have it in you.

Now, what that looks like may depend on who you are and what your challenge is. God’s power in your life may be that you have the humility to ask someone for help with a serious fear you have. It might be wisdom to ask the right questions as you try to make a life-changing decision. It might be nothing more than confidence and contentment through a dark and stormy season of life. It might be the strength to triumph over things that have chained you.

Whatever your situation, I think it is really easy to fall into the trap of feeling like life has presented you with a challenge that you cannot face alone. In a way, this is true: I believe that at some point, everyone hits a problem they can’t face alone. But if you are following Jesus, you aren’t alone. You are with Jesus. And guess what: he forgives us and, instead of seeing the sins we’ve committed, he sees who we can become if we walk by faith. The question is, will we trust him?