Jeff Shinabarger - More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you.

Bob Goff, you wrote words about me that lifted my spirit and brought me to tears. I hope to have a family like yours and love people how you do. The starting words of this book were inked at the Writers cabin.

Joanna DeWolf, you are more than a big sister to me; you have lived these pages your entire life and sweat over each word with methanks for all the time and energy you put into this project.

Gisele Nelson, you make everything I work on better, and again you have outdone yourself with this book. Thanks for believing in me as a leader and frienda gracious combination.

Dan and Judy Shinabarger, there should be a book written about your generosity; I am living to tell the stories of how you showed me to give excessively to others.

The David C Cook Team: thanks for believing in me and this idea from the first conversation over breakfast. Much thanks to Don Pape, Alex Field, Caitlyn Carlson, Mike Worley, Mike Salisbury, and every other person who has touched the manuscript and brought it to the world.

Christopher Ferebee, you knew this project had legs and saw the potential early on; you made it happen with me.

Nicaragua: this book was written on the streets of Granada at Lilys and Garden Caf and was shaped by our relationship with Carmen.

Peter Greer, thanks for asking me for three years to write these stories and share them with others.

Thanks to the people I do life with who have lived this story with me and contributed in unending ways: Josh and Katie Thompson, Russell Shaw, Anne Seymour, Lesley Carter, Kathryn Taylor, Kerry Wilkerson, Brad Lomenick, Jim and Allison Dudley, Greg Gilbert, Brian Preston, Aaron Fortner, Robbie and Mimi Brown, Matt DeWolf, Mike and Karyl Morin, Jon and Beth Gaus, Shayne Wheeler, Dan Adamson, Marisa Wheatley, Josh and Angie Blackson, Kay Nwe, Leroy Barber, Charles T. Lee, Mike Foster, Tammy Huizenga, Erin Fisher, Scott Helmbold, Wes OCallahan, Don and Sandy TenHoeve, Mike and Megin Stearns, Bethany Hoang, Chris Seay, and Ben Washer.

Lastly, I thank Jada Rae and Neko Lee. I hope the two of you someday read these words and make them part of your life. I hope you show me more about generosity than I will ever be able to teach you. You are the future, and I cant wait to see how you do life.

To Andre.

You live with less, so others have more.

This book was written because I met you.

FOREWORD / BOB GOFF

Jeff doesnt just talk about generosity; he lives it. In fact, he and his beautiful wife, Andre, live it like theyre made of the stuff. Jeff and Andre have invited me into their lives. Selfishly, Id like to say Im one of the very few people who have been invited in because it would make me feel somehow important. But they invite everyone they meet into their lives. Instead of making people feel important, they make everyone feel loved. Where some people act like bouncers when it comes to other peoples ideas, Jeff quietly acts like an usher, and in this terrific book hes invited us all to take seats right up front in the orchestra section. Hes reminded me once again of whats good in the world and of the simple goodness of giving.

Jeff doesnt set out in this book to convince you that you have much excess stuff in your life but he will . He doesnt try to tell you to let go of the stuff youve accumulated, either but you will want to . What Jeff gently says in this beautifully written book is that we dont just have more stuff than we need; we have more love than we need. In fact, before I turned the last page, I found that I had piles of love hidden everywhere.

Thanks, Jeff, for reminding me where to look.

Ive sat with Jeff in the woods in a small cabin where I listened to him talk about big dreams. What is different about Jeff is that his big dreams arent for him. They are big dreams for other people. And you know what? He makes them happen. Youll see how in this book, and youll nod your head in agreement like I didbut you wont stop there. Youll go do something about it because love is as contagious as Jeff is.

Among the things Ive learned from my time with Jeff in the woods is to be careful who I let into my cabin. Jeff didnt trash the place; instead, he trashed my ideas of creative generosity and how I could go about enacting them. This is the kind of book youll want to read outside because there will be an explosion of sorts in your life. Some of your ideas of philanthropy will explode. Some of your excuses will explode. Some of your indifference and some of the limits youve put on your love or creativity will explode as well. And if youre like me, youll find yourself silently mouthing the words I could do that at the end of many of these chapters. Whats even better is that youll find yourself doing those things, not just thinking about them any longer. Its for one simple reasonyouve found yourself inside the blast radius of Jeffs contagious brand of love.

Youll laugh some and cry some at the stories in this book, but you wont simply agree, because Jeff isnt asking us to just agree with him. Instead, he invites each of us to take the next right step. He doesnt road map the entire journey for us either, but he does offer some pretty good directions.

If love were raindrops, youd be convinced before you finished this book that Jeff is a tropical storm. I know these things because Ive been caught in the squall that surrounds his life, and Ive been soaked through with extraordinary love and grace and passion. If youre like me, youll put down this book and not just want to be more generous; youll want to be more like Jeff. Thats not Jeffs goal of course, but thats what happens when you see love lived out. Its an extravagant love Jeff writes about too. When I got caught in its vortex I found myself wanting to be both at Jeffs side and at the feet of Jesus.

Jeff knows Jesus, and he knows Him well. I dont know this because Jeff told me; I know this because I know Jeff. Ive seen him in times of desperate need and in times of utter delight. Ive laughed until Ive cried as hes told me stories. But none of his stories are about him. They are stories about the needs in the world and the need to help we have in our lives.

Jeff sometimes gets a telltale bird-eating grin on his face, particularly when hes talking about God and how my life would be better if I would shake loose some love. Its almost like Jeff is spinning the dial of the vault in which I keep some of my generosity. In that way, Jeffs not unlike a safecracker listening for tumblers to fall into place. And for me, before I finished the book, they had. Jeff unlocked in me a desire to love God and love people better than I thought I could, with a generosity as creative as it is extravagant.

This is a book of extremes: extreme love, extreme grace, and extreme faith. Jeff is one of those guys all of us hope to have in our lives but few of us do. Youre about to meet a guy who will mess with your notions of love and generosity as much as he messed with mine. Let me warn you in advance: your closets, your cabinets, your love, and your pride are not safe around Jeff. Thats because Jeff is going to mess with how you use your time, how you spend your money, and what you do with your stuff. Jeff isnt trying to get us to reevaluate our lives; instead hes asked us to value them more. To value what we can give from our excess and what might be possible if we served ourselves up to the world with a large scoop of whimsy.