The Domino's Effect - A Giving Story

The Domino’s Effect

Telling the Story with My Commentary

Because it has been a habit of ours, for almost fifteen years now, to set aside a predetermined percentage of our income into our “benevolence” checking account, I no longer think it is difficult to financially bless someone with everyday needs or minor emergencies. It truly is amazing to see how my small, spontaneous, generosity can make such a HUGE impact in another person’s life and ultimately, and hopefully, in the Kingdom of God.

* * * * * *

My teen daughter, Kara, and I had decided our Saturday afternoon together would consist of watching a tv series, playing on our phones, ordering pizza, and eating junk food.

I was all set to feed my rest, and indulge in laziness, when our doorbell rang for the pizza being delivered. My daughter had handled all the details on the app, including the tip, and she jumped up to answer the door.

Looking back, I wonder if the Holy Spirit was nudging me to also go to the door, because I was simply motivated to ensure we received all the pieces to our order before our driver left.

I walked near Kara, after she received the pizza boxes, and whispered, “Did you include the tip already?”. She told me she had included a five-dollar tip for the driver. I tried to calculate if that was fair for the ticket amount and the driver’s time driving to and from the store.

Unable to do quick math, I glanced at the delivery woman, outside my doorway, who was now bending down in front to untangle the bag she had been holding under the pizza box warmer. I judged her cloth tennis shoes and skinny legs in her dark jeans as my gaze looked for who she was and if I should tip her more.

It is interesting how we naturally start to wrestle with our thoughts. Honestly, at the time, I did not know the Lord was calling or using me. That was not even on my radar consciously. All I knew was that I had an urge to give her a better tip. I think my flesh was trying to find judgements to justify either following through with that or to ignore the thought and let the five dollars be “good enough”.

When she stood back up, and our eyes met, I saw her sunken face and quickly judged that she could certainly use extra funds. Honestly, I assumed she was the type of person who was just doing her best to live day to day and stay off the street.

I asked her if she’d like an extra tip. Again, I am not sure why I asked rather than just offering (My flesh trying to find a way out still, I guess).

She replied gleefully, “I can always use an extra tip!” My mind tried to scan where I had that twenty-dollar bill I recently got from reselling something online. I asked Kara to go find my purse.

As I was standing there, with our driver, she started to justify why she could use the money. She told me her car had just gotten back from the shop the day before. She had to spend about $800 to do some repairs she rattled off to me.

I particularly heard her mention needing to put a new starter in her car, because just a few days prior, I had gotten into one of our cars and it would not start, but it made a clicking noise. I remember feeling completely exasperated that we may need to spend hundreds of dollars more to get a new starter for our car! (Lately we have been having a lot of adverse situations that have been costing time, money, and energy- and another large expense was NOT welcomed.)

Fortunately, for us, it turned out to just be an old car battery that needed to be replaced. The irony of that very similar feeling did not get past me.

However, my situation was clearly so different from hers. What I looked at as an unwelcomed expense, could be an emergency debit that could bring on much hardship for her.

I started to ask probing questions. “Were you able to put that on a credit card or how did you pay for it? That’s expensive….”

She said she had a friend that helped her as well as having to spend her $300+ dollars that she had saved to pay her next rent payment. She was quick to couple her complaint with her optimistic faith filled attitude that God always takes care of her.

I don’t know if it was her faith in God, the irony of the starter being the issue, or the fact that I had recently done my budget and saw excess funds sitting in our benevolence account, that prompted me to continue to pursue being a vessel of compassion and help, but it became clearer to me at this point that this was definitely an opportunity, privilege, and somewhat a responsibility to be a blessing on behalf of God.

At first, I thought I could give her a check to pay her friend back, so she would not be in debt to any of her friends. I couldn’t figure out if the funds to repair her car were a gift from her friend, or if she was going to have to pay the loan back. So instead, I asked when her rent was due, and she told me the date twelve days from then.

I asked how much her rent payment was. She told me, “$620 or $635”. It was not difficult for me to quickly get the picture that she had worked half a month and had only been able to save up half of her rent! Now that she had to spend it on her transportation, she would not be likely able to save up her rent in time.

Kara had brought my purse and I was able to find the extra twenty to give to her. As I handed it to her, I asked her if I could also pay her rent.

Her immediate response was a joyful word volley right back at me to deflect this blessing. I wish I had the whole encounter on video (and I did think to record it – but it would have minimized the moment between two humans connecting in a real purposeful way, and it would have risked her feeling the authentic care and concern I had for helping her vs using her for a video story. I will paraphrase.)

“Oh no. I couldn’t take that from you.” She responded with her body language quickly in unison with her verbal deflection. She jumped back off my porch step.

I debated with her that she had just stated that God would find a way to take care of her, and here was a way God could do that, and she was rejecting it! I knew this generally comes from a place of not feeling or believing in one’s own worth, especially to their Father in Heaven. It also comes from a place of much disappointment in life when prayers have seemed to go unanswered and needs unmet. We get accustomed to our mindset protecting ourselves from favor and help.

But, in front of me, it was clear as day that she was using her mindset and her words to sabotage her own finances! Even my two children, who were now a small distance away, were standing there watching and listening to this interaction. I heard Kara say, behind me, the fact that she had just contradicted herself – on one hand saying God would take care of her and on the other hand rejecting a blessing God could do through us.

As she listened to our logic, she finally agreed to allow us to pay her rent. When this settled in as a reality for her, she could not manage the overflow of her emotions well.  Her body language was all over the place, her words were too.

I quickly went in the other room to get our SOCKS.team ministry checkbook and a pen. As I started to write out a check to her, she was still pouring out details of her life. (It is something I have noticed, that when you bless people with a financial gift into their need, they are much more willing to start sharing their personal stories with you. I believe, like me, they are craving intimate connection and friendship with people as much, if not more, than meeting their next financial survival need. We are more than machines on a mission to work to eat; we are souls that crave emotional and mental relief as well through relationship and connection.)

Because I had heard her financial story and was willing to help with that, suddenly she was sharing her emotional story as well. This is where I believe the provision from Christ grows into the compassion of Christ as we give of ourselves to and for others.

As she was verbally justifying accepting our help, she expanded her story to share that she had left her abusive husband a few years ago and had been working at Pizza Hut but then had switched to Domino’s Pizza. She explained the payroll differences and laughed as she recounted her turning down Pizza Hut’s offer to come back to them for higher wages after she had left to make more money with Domino’s. She felt accomplished in her decision and skill as a pizza related employee. I wondered if this was the time to tell her my knowledge of local places, she could work at to make higher wages, but it did not seem peaceful to bring that up – so I let it go. (I am still learning the art of when to jump in to try to fix lives to be “my way” versus when to help on their own terms and way of living.)

She told me her mom lives in Florida and has her 12-year-old daughter. I assumed it was because she could not support herself and her daughter after she left her abusive marriage. Then she went to sharing that she had just lost her father to suicide just a few weeks ago. She told us how she had not talked with him for years and then was very happy that she had a great conversation with him on his birthday, which was only about a month before he committed suicide.

Despite our different socioeconomic statuses, I saw myself and my story in hers. The mountains of pain. How one decision, or event, can cascade into a lifestyle of pain, suffering, and uncertainty on a daily basis. How you can get so used to fighting for yourself and meeting your own needs, that it becomes foreign to you that God could actually use someone else to bring peace and calm into your physical daily life. That His mercy and grace are that great and that you are not that far out of His reach. That He uses strangers who are living their lives seeking Him to intersect with your life and “suddenly” the script of your life is flipped, and you have a new profound level peace, joy, and love in your day that strengthens and encourages you at the core.

As I wrote the check, I asked her who to make it out to. Previously, when she was accepting the fact that we were going to pay her rent, she rationalized out loud that I could write the check directly to her apartment and not to her. I found this interesting as she was the one in need, though she acted as one who knew the judgements of giving money to people in need and did not want to fit into that category of suspicion.

I tried to confirm the amount, and she was still not sure. I figured I would just write it for $635, and if it was over, she could have a credit on file. However, she was already pulling out her phone and called the apartment to inquire. She explained who she was, what apartment she lived in, that she was at work, and her customer was offering to pay her rent. She was still so overcome with disbelief and excitement as she was communicating these details. The apartment receptionist gave the total and mentioned how nice this was (I call this a “secondary blessing”: when a second party is impacted by a blessing event.)

They hung up, and I wrote the check out to her apartment for $635.00 and handed it to her. She was so blessed she couldn’t be still. She continued to step all over my porch with jerky movements, up and down, thankful and disbelieving words all mixed into this moment.

I continued to tell her we were “blessed by God to be a blessing” and that she is seen and matters, and this is just a representation of His provision and care over her life. I also remembered to tell her to use this as an opportunity to tap into the sowing and reaping of God’s economy and to be paying attention to needs of others around her. She seemed a little stressed about needing to figure out who she could bless, but I assured her God would reveal it to her by bringing them to her, and she would know when the time is right – but once she recognizes it – to not let the temptation to be greedy to take over. To sow into that moment, recalling what the Lord has done for her today by relieving her of such a huge burden for her.

There wasn’t time to share our own testimonies of this as she needed to get back to work, but I hoped my words and actions were enough to impart some of what I have learned, from my own journey with the Lord from poverty to abundance, for her own to begin. 

I tried to encourage her to use this blessing to enjoy the small financial respite this would give her. That she now has a little head start for earning the funds for her next month’s rent.

As I witnessed her getting to bask in the overwhelming moment of realizing the “goodness of God” had physically touched her life, I recalled our ministry motto we have grown into, “Give until you make them cry.”

However, this was the first time I could recall, that we gave, and in turn it was making me cry.

This is what I am calling “The Domino’s Effect”.

Witnessing this response to abundant giving is similar to the sequence that follows when dominoes are placed just right, and one is knocked down, causing the others to fall too.

When my giving reaches the hearts and minds of people to the point that not only are they impacted emotionally, but my emotions are impacted as well. When I witness their expression transform to tears, as they realize God blessing them through me, and then I recognize my own part as God’s ambassador, aroma, and instrument in their life and am humbled and honored into joyful tears as well.

As she started to leave, she came closer to continue to thank me. I thought we were going to shake hands (the current “pandemic” and all), but she ended up giving me a hug. She walked back to her car, to “get back to work”, I closed my door to “get back to rest”.

* * * * * *

In 2007, my husband and I expressed our desire to one day “work for God”, and that is what I just got to do, again, in that short but powerful, and Power-filled, encounter.

I had to take a few moments to process and cry through the overwhelming feelings I was now experiencing.

My daughter and son were ready to jump into our pizza and tv moments, but I had to verbally talk with them about what we had just witnessed and been a part of in the Kingdom work we do.

Again, I wish I could have recorded it, to share with the world a glimpse into what this unconditional generous giving really looks like, but I knew if I asked my daughter to record, it would cause my own inhibitions and fears to get in the way of me being able to truly express myself in this real raw moment.

The realization that my life is still so broken and so messy in so many ways and areas. I still have multiple things I am trying to stay, and stand, in faith believing God to answer.

And yet, in this one area, our finances, God was able to use me in a powerful way to be His provision into someone else’s struggle and life.

Despite my own shortcomings and failures and struggles, He is still so good to me, that He would allow me the privilege to get to work for Him in this way!

I am so honored, humbled, and amazed at how He continues to draw me to people, and them to me, in unexpected “encounters”.

I am so thankful that years ago, we made an intentional decision to love and serve His people in this way of financial giving. I am so thankful we have practiced proactively setting aside funds on a regular basis and growing the spiritual gift of generous giving (Romans 12:8). Moments like these are more effortless and so rich at the same time.

I am so thankful Laurie, the Domino’s delivery woman, got her next month’s rent paid early and the richer gift of knowing the goodness of God is specifically and personally for her too, through our hands and ministry.

If you have not made giving a regular part of your budget or lifestyle, I encourage you to make time to incorporate this into your financial routine.

Even if you start with a small set amount, or percentage, just creating the container and space for this to reside, will make room for you to meet the needs of those you come in contact with unexpectantly. It’s been said before, “Expect the unexpected.”

I can testify, in our own financial journey through poverty, we were never too poor to give, and you will never be either. God gives seed to the sower.

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower,

 and bread for food,

supply and multiply

the seed you have sown

and increase

 the fruits of your righteousness,

while you are enriched

in everything for all liberality,

which causes thanksgiving

through us to God.”

 2 Corinthians 9:10-12 NKJV

For steps to start your own benevolence account, click here for my quick checklist.

Walk Blessed, Rachelle Suzanne ♥

www.SOCKS.team |RachelleSuzanne.com
Servant’s of Christ’s Kingdom Serving