Have you ever experienced the loneliness of the giver?

I remember some years back meeting with a couple who described their loneliness as givers. They described how the pastor came to visit them only when there was a capital campaign. Think what that communicated to them.

On the other hand, there’s the other side of the coin—the pastors who serve. In May 2020, Darrin Patrick, a teaching pastor at Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, and former lead pastor of the Journey Church in St. Louis, took his own life with a gunshot. In September 2019, Jarrid Wilson, a 30-year-old pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA, took his life by suicide. In August 2018, Andrew Stoecklein, a pastor at Indian Hills Church in Chino, CA, took his own life.

Pastors and missionaries give a lot. These can be draining and lonely callings. But every giver can feel alone.

Some give through money. Some give through time. Some give through their talents. And the giving can be incredibly rewarding.

But it can be incredibly lonely too. Not everyone understands the giver. Some want to take advantage of the giver for the sake of the gift. That’s where the loneliness comes.

For the giver, we need to make sure there’s the right relationships around us, probing and prodding about how we are doing. We also need to make sure we dive deeper with the Ultimate Giver—God himself. As we receive from Him, it allows us to be truly generous of heart and to remain fresh in our soul.

How do you refresh yourself? And who can you look out for to encourage?

Photo by Jordan McQueen on Unsplash

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published August 12, 2020

Topics: Generosity

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