Written by Guest Contributor, Jim Rosenwinkel | November 17, 2022
My wife and I recently completed a Generosity Plan through Dynamis Ministries. We found the exercise not only opened our eyes to new possibilities based on our backgrounds and situation, but it also turned out to be a gentle audit. That is, are we as generous as we would prefer to be in our interactions with others?
It’s disheartening to consider the frequent gap between our interactions with others and the grace-filled qualities we are called to model. The apostle Paul reminds us, “So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity” (Col 3:12, 14 GNT). In today’s culture, it can be easy to acknowledge these instructions but fail to live by them because of the pressure to “choose sides” on any and every issue that arises. The Generosity Plan process covered many avenues of generosity where we could improve in our interactions with others, from the place of a spirit of generosity and in tangible actions. And yet this is so difficult because there’s a distinctive hurdle that we need to be aware of.
The hurdle I’m speaking of is the way we all have some hardwired parts of our mindsets that reflect our biases and background. This affects how we view others. All too often we make quick judgements on people based on their political stance, lifestyle, status or background. These judgements affect our attitudes and actions towards others and significantly limits our generosity. Our hardwired thinking can be very harmful. To illustrate it, consider this story of how it almost killed my father-in-law:
My father-in-law was a WWII flight instructor for fighter pilots. All instructors were trained—hardwired—to observe a student and think through a situation; waiting for the best time to intervene before disaster struck. Eager to get into the fight themselves, the instructors finally had their requests for combat duty approved. The entire first group sent to Europe were shot down within several weeks. Likewise, the second group was quickly dispatched. My father-in-law was in the next group to go when rotation into combat duty was discontinued. Interviews with surviving pilots concluded that the instructors had inadvertently been trained to overthink their decision making. But to survive air combat you must react quickly. Many pilot instructors paid a severe price for the harmful hardwiring of overthinking.
Proactive vigilance and self-awareness helps control our own old, hardwired reactions that prompt us to prejudge or dismiss others because of their words, appearance or tribe. It helps us bypass any old checklist we may have had, before being generous with God’s gifts of love, compassion and humility. Paul used the metaphor to “clothe yourselves” to mean being intentional in our vigilance to remain gracefully generous in our interactions with others. Pilots quickly learned the harmful results of their hardwiring. Likewise, we would be well to evaluate our own hardwiring reaction to others on a regular basis so that we can grow in carrying the qualities of Christ.
The Generosity Plan can be an additional tool that offers insight into how we’re doing as well. It helps define the open-hearted, generous love Christ calls us to live out. It reviews numerous ways to be generous and helps illuminate the subtle dynamics anchored in our old hard-wired ways. Are you open to doing a wellness check on your wiring?
Bio:
Jim is recently retired after 25 years in project management for financial and insurance processing systems with a national commercial insurer, and 15 years as a financial advisor, most recently with Wela Financial. He and his wife Kathy reside in Wheaton, Illinois, with two married sons and 6 grandchildren nearby.
