Formsma - I like giving: the transforming power of a generous life: practical ideas, inspiring stories

I L IKE G IVING

The Scripture quotation is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Details and names in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

The Paradoxical Commandments are reprinted with the permission of the author.

Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001.

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-60142-575-1

eBook ISBN 978-1-60142-576-8

Copyright 2014 by Brad Formsma

Photos by I Like Giving; photography by Carson David Brown

Cover design: Baas Creative

Published in association with the literary agency of The Fedd Agency Inc.,

P.O. Box 341973, Austin, TX 78734.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

W ATER B ROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Formsma, Brad.

I like giving : the transforming power of a generous life : practical ideas, inspiring stories / Brad Formsma. First Edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-60142-575-1 ISBN 978-1-60142-576-8 1. GenerosityReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BV4647.G45F67 2014

241.4dc23

2013038961

v3.1_r4

To my wife, Laura,
who knew this book would happen
years before it did.
Without you and your encouragement,
this book would never have come to pass.

I love you.

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The giving journey for Tracy Autler started on Thanksgiving Day 1993. Away from her family, living in an apartment on the lower end of town, a single mom to a three-year-old and eight months pregnant, she was relying on welfare and food stamps to get by. While other families were preparing for their Thanksgiving feasts, Tracy would do the best she could with canned food.

Standing in her apartment and looking at the sparse collection of cans on her shelf, Tracy heard a knock at the door. What in the world? she thought. Who would be coming to her door on Thanksgiving Day? Werent people at home with their families, eating turkey and watching football? She opened her door and simply couldnt believe her eyes.

Standing there was a man from a local restaurant with a delivery for Tracy: a full Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the trimmings. He said it was from an anonymous donor, and before Tracy could ask any questions, he handed it over and left. Tracy was so overwhelmed that she spent the rest of the day crying.

Surprised and amazed, Tracy decided she needed to know whom to thank for this extravagant and timely gift. However, she couldnt figure it out. She called her parents, but it wasnt them. She asked her friends, but no one knew. Tracy couldnt believe that someone outside her circle of friends and family had noticed her situation and done something about it without drawing any attention to himself.

Years went by, and Tracy still had no idea whom the mysterious Thanksgiving dinner had come from. In time she moved out of that apartment and began working as a nurse at a local hospital.

And then it happened. Seven years after that special Thanksgiving meal, a woman named Margot was admitted into Tracys care. Margot had multiple sclerosis, and her condition was becoming critical. Tracy remembered Margot from her time on welfare. She had lived in the same apartment building as Tracy. It was clear that Margot didnt have much longer to live.

Three days before her death, Margot took Tracys hand in hers and, in a frail voice, whispered two words: Happy Thanksgiving.

In that moment Tracy knew who had given her that Thanksgiving dinner. She would never have guessed that Margotthe unassuming neighbor with multiple sclerosiswas behind that generous gift. Tracy still gets tears in her eyes when she tells the story today.