Charity and generosity are what make the world good. Even country music stars know this, some of them have even started their own nonprofits.
To celebrate the good in people, here are two inspirational stories about generosity and sacrifice that might just change your outlook on life.
Story # 1: A preacher’s generosity saves a family from suicide
photo from basecampmonterey.com
A preacher in a New Orleans convenience store noticed that the family in front of him didn’t have enough money to buy their items. He tapped the man on the back and said, “You don’t need to turn around, but please accept this money.” The man took the money and did not turn around.
About nine years later, the preacher was speaking at a church service, and a man approached him afterward.
“Several years ago, my wife and our child were destitute,” he said. “We had lost everything, had no jobs, no money and were living in our car. We also lost all hope, and agreed to a suicide pact, including our child. However, we decided to first give our son some food, so we drove to a convenience store to buy him some food and milk.
“While we were standing in line at the store, we realized that we did not have enough money to pay for these items, but a man behind us asked us to please take the money from his hand and not look at him…
“We left the store, drove to our designated suicide site, and wept for hours. We couldn’t go through with it, so we drove away. As we drove, we noticed a church with a sign out front which said, ‘Jesus loves you.’”
The man said he and his family went to that service the next day, and that gave them a new start, a new beginning in life.
“When you began speaking this morning,” he continued to tell the preacher, “I knew immediately that you were the man who gave us that money.
“Your act of kindness was much more than a simple good deed. Three people are alive today because of it.”
Story # 2: The priest who gave himself up to the Nazis
Actor portrayal of Maximilian Kolbe (photo from bevansinc.blogspot.com)
During World War II, the German Gestapo arrested Polish Priest Maximilian Kolbe for hiding Jews and Polish refugees. He had been hiding them from the Nazis.
In an Aushwitz concentration camp, the deputy commander announced that 10 men would be starved to death because three other prisoners had disappeared from camp. At this, one of the men started shouting, “My wife! My children! I will never see them again!”
Seeing this, Kolbe confidently step forward, removed his cap, and volunteered himself for starvation.
“I am a Catholic Priest,” he said. “Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children.”
And so the priest was put in the starvation cell. And every day, Kolbe celebrated mass and sang songs. But eventually, the Germans needed his cell for other prisoners, so they told him they’d have to give him a lethal injection.
photo from basecampmonterey.com
Actor portrayal of Maximilian Kolbe (photo from bevansinc.blogspot.com)
