A New Philanthropist

Several weeks ago at The Roots Community we brushed the topic of philanthropy. Someone gave a great definition of a philanthropist as a person with a lot of resources that supports a mission, ministry or cause.

Webster gives this definition:

one who practices goodwill to fellowmen; especially : active effort to promote human welfare; one who dispenses aid from funds set aside for humanitarian purposes

So, to combine both definitions, a philanthropist is someone with resources who gives to humanity.

The next question at Roots was "Who in the room is a philanthropist?" No one raised their hand because we were all thinking in terms of money (All of us at The Roots fund raise our salaries). But Jesse made the parallel of Jesus being the real philanthropist and how He has given us the opportunity to be the same. Jesus had everything available to Him from the Father and we are given that same access. God blesses and gives to us so that we might bless and give to others (check out Gen 12:1-3). It is also a definition of community and of love. The following scripture was mentioned, which I thought was perfectly fitting:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

The final question asked was this: "What has Jesus blessed you with so that you can be a blessing to others?"

Great question!

After thinking about it for a bit I have an answer. I have recently figured out some things about myself. I took a strength finder test and empathy was the top result. A love language test found words of affirmation to describe me. Finally, a spiritual gifts test showed a high score in exhortation. A lot of things make much more sense to me now about why I think the way I do and I happen to think that is a pretty specific combination that Jesus has put together!

I feel like Jesus blesses me with words of encouragement for a positive mindset and I want to give that away! I want to do that by texting and twittering. I am really excited about this and think it will be a cool way to give away what's been given to me. So, if you need some empathy, words of encouragement or exhortation, you can follow me on twitter or you can email your name and phone number to freedomrach@yahoo.com with the subject line "encourage me" and I'll text you. I promise I won't bombard you...in fact it probably wont even be daily. But I will pray for you and as I feel led, share some thoughts and scriptures to hopefully bless and encourage us both.

So how about you? What has Jesus blessed you with that you can give away?