How To Help People Recognize Your Generosity Without Being Prideful

“It’s not generosity if no one knows about it.” – the other Daniel Day

Note: This blog was written by the other Daniel Day, the guy who is more selfish and conceited than the real Director of Content and Marketing for Axis.

Let me be honest for a moment. It’s fun to be generous, especially when everyone finds out about it. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to be known as “the generous guy/gal”? But (for most people – not me) it’s hard to let people know about your generosity without them feeling like you’re arrogant, prideful, or being generous for the wrong reasons. So I have created a list of ways you can help people recognize your generosity without them also condemning you as conceited.

1. Use paper checks. Paper checks have your name, address, and phone number printed on the top, and there’s a memo line where you can write in your Twitter handle.

2. Pick up a homeless person to take them out to lunch, but make sure you “forget” your wallet at the office. When you stop by the office to pick up your wallet, remember that it’s rude to leave your guest in the car. Invite him in to the office, but don’t introduce him to anyone. Most likely the extroverts in the office will greet him, and they will want to know how he knows you. Ta-da!

3. Buy Starbucks for a friend with your gold card, but forget to tell the barista that the drink isn’t for you. They will automatically write your name on the cup so that when you leave the drink on your friend’s desk, they will be confused and ask you about it. You will be able to play it off with, “Shoot, I forgot to tell them that it wasn’t for me. I meant to surprise you anonymously, but oh well.”

4. Create a “meal sign-up” for your friends who just had a baby. Make sure you volunteer to take them the first meal, and leave a space on the list to tell exactly what you’re bringing. Type in “Filet Mignon, roasted red potatoes, and spinach salad with chocolate lava cake and a raspberry reduction sauce.” You don’t have to actually bring them a Filet or chocolate cake because things change and you could run out of time. Remember, it’s the thought that counts. McDonald’s is still better than no food at all.

5. Buy flowers and chocolate for your wife, and post a photo on Facebook or Instagram (or both). Your wife and others will just think you’re being sweet, especially when you post something like, “To the most amazing wife in the world. I love you, baby.” Make sure you tag your wife in the photo so that more people will see it.

Those are my top 5. What other ways can you think of to help people recognize your generosity? Comment below and continue the discussion…

Bonus Idea 1 (from my cousin): use your office as the return address for charity donation receipts and leave them on your desk.

Bonus Idea 2: Instead of a check, bring your tithe to church as a wad of $1 bills. When the collection plate (or basket for contemporary churches) comes to you, break the rubber band and drop the wad of cash on the floor (make it look like an accident). If your church has a wooden or concrete floor, consider quarters. Not only will they roll, but they will make a loud crashing sound when you drop them.

P.S. Matthew 6:1-4 reads… 

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Daniel Ryan Day has been working as the Director of Content and Marketing for Axis for 3

years, and is the author of Axis' first book Ten Days Without. You can follow him on Twitter: @danielryanday

The Grand Story of the World

If I can venture to make a claim, at least for the purpose of this blog, I would like to pose the thought that no matter what our beliefs, everyone believes that they are part of a story.

The story that we find ourselves involved in will depend upon our beliefs and ideas of the world and how it works. G.K. Chesterton is quoted as saying:

“I had always felt life as a story: and if there is a story, there is a story-teller.”

Allow me to make another claim. If life is a story then God is the story-teller. For those of us that claim this to be true, do we believe that God has each of us in mind as He is telling His story? 

If it is God’s story then what role do we play? And does the Bible do a good job at answering this question? 

Knowing the story of the Bible is to become acquainted with the story-teller. If I personally know the story-teller and the story He is trying to tell then most likely I will not only know my role, but I can be better prepared to play my role. 

I think Biblica says it best in their introduction to the Books of the Bible. They have written, “The Bible was written so we could enter into its story. It is meant to be lived... We are all invited to take up our own roles in this ongoing story of redemption and new creation.”

Do we follow the script that He has written for us? Because no matter how big or how small, there is a part for each of us to play.

Growing up in theatre my director’s used to tell me how important each role was, from the extra who simply walks from one end of the stage to the other, to the stage crew changing sets in the dark never to be seen by anyone in the audience.

Each part intertwines with all the others and God has a plan to tell a grand story. The parts are casted and the script is set. Our job is to tell the story as best we can through the role that we are cast.  

What part do you play in the story? What strengths and abilities do you have that God wants to use to tell the story? Comment below and continue the discussion...

This post was written by Colin Heasley. Colin leads an Axis Team around the country helping students and their communities move from apathy to compassionate action. You can follow the Axis Teams on Twitter: @axisteams

Pop culture isn’t the barometer of America’s health; we are | A Rant

by: Melanie Mudge

“Why do we have a culture that promotes filth?” we ask.

“Why can’t we go back to wholesome media?” we wonder.

“Will this ever stop?!” we lament.

Then we get on Twitter, notice that #mileycyrus and #twerking are trending, and proceed to spend the next 45 minutes looking at each 140-character tweet about her VMA performance. When we’re finally jerked out of our trances by our overly full bladders or something equally annoying, we decide to add our voices to the cacophony with a thought-provoking tweet, a Vine of our reactions to the performance, an Instagram photo of our dogs looking shocked, and a link on Facebook to our blogs about how her performance is the barometer of the health of America, complete with a link to the performance. Whew! Oh yeah, and those bladders are still calling...

The phrase “If you ignore it, it will go away” keeps coming to mind. Of course, the phrase isn’t always true. Case in point--this recent interaction between my mom and younger sister:

“Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. 

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom! Mom! 

MOM! MOM! MOM!!!!!!! MOTHER!!” 

“What?” 

“Hi!” 

(Or this video of Stewie from Family Guy)

Obviously, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” became a cliché for a reason. However, an annoying gnat in your ear (i.e. a force outside of our control) is different from culture (i.e. a force which, despite our misconceptions, is controlled by all of us collectively).

Pop culture is 100% driven by dollars. If a song sells, we will soon see a music video, a movie of the same title, TV shows featuring the song, magazines articles about the artist, 13.452 songs exactly like it, and t-shirts, mugs, necklaces, and other paraphernalia featuring the lyrics (remember this?) because it’s all guaranteed to bring in even more dough.

Who buys the song in the first place? We do. And who buys the resulting spin-off paraphernalia? We do. So when an artist has a provocative performance, who’s responsible for the ensuing media hype and social media buzz? We are--because we watch it, watch the news reports about it, find it on YouTube to re-watch it, Tweet about it, and on, and on.

Lest this devolves into a “chicken or egg” sort of argument here, let’s instead figure out the solution. We can’t control the artists or the media companies. But we can control the demand; we can control what we watch, spend money on, talk or tweet about, or follow on social media. 

And, most importantly, we can control what we teach and model to our kids. Instead of immediately adding to the noise about the latest appalling performance on every social media platform available--hence giving the artists and the media companies the hype they want--let our first thought be to disciple our kids. There are enough people tweeting and blogging both positive and negative things about it. And we might get a grand total of 7 “likes.”

But we can have significant influence on our children, their values, and their desires. We can show them what it means to esteem things besides shocking, sex-filled media. We can teach them to love what God loves and hate what He hates. And we can show them that doing so is much more fulfilling than anything else in this world.

If we raise a generation to value, support, and create media that helps everyone to love God more, culture will change. If we continue as we’re going now, we’ll raise a generation that becomes part of pushing the boundaries even further, all the while valuing social media interactions over real-life relationships.

Sex sells...but only because we buy it. Pop culture isn’t the barometer of America’s health; we are.

Melanie Mudge has been the Associate Director of Research for Axis since 2011. She is passionate about seeing the next generation love what God loves and hate what God hates.