Envisioning a Different Future

<p>The&nbsp;three hundred middle and high school students of the small town of Neodesha, Kansas filed into a surprise school assembly. They then sat in disbelief upon hearing that a married couple with ties to their town committed to pay college tuition for every Neodesha student for the next twenty-five years. The students were stunned, overjoyed, and tearful.</p> <p>Neodesha had been hard hit economically, which meant many families worried about how to cover college expenses. The gift was a generational game-changer, and the donors hope it will immediately impact current families but also incentivize other families to move to Neodesha. They envision their generosity igniting new jobs, new vitality&mdash;an entirely&nbsp;different future for the town and its neighbors.</p> <p>God desired His people to be generous by not only tending to their own acute needs but also by envisioning a new future for their overwhelmed, struggling neighbors. God&rsquo;s directions were clear: &ldquo;If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them&rdquo; (Leviticus 25:35). The generosity wasn&rsquo;t only about meeting basic physical needs of food and shelter but also about considering what their future life together as a community would require. &ldquo;Help them,&rdquo; God said, &ldquo;so they can continue to live among you&rdquo; (v. 35).</p> <p>The deepest forms of giving reimagine a different future. God&rsquo;s immense, creative generosity encourages us toward that day when we all live together in wholeness and plenty.</p>