Several years ago while serving on the board of a national organization, I met an unusual multi-millionaire named Paul Meyer. At the time Meyer had the reputation of being the most generous man alive. His climb to the top was quick but not easy. When just 16 years old he was kicked out of the house by an angry father and he lived in a tent for six weeks.
But Paul Meyer was determined to make something of himself and to prove his dad wrong. He took a lowly job with an insurance company collecting monthly payments and was so faithful in his assigned task that eventually he was given the opportunity to sell insurance.
Before he was thirty years old Paul Meyer became the national salesman of the year. He then taught sales seminars and eventually wrote training courses. He invested wisely and made a lot of money.
Then one day Jesus Christ touched his heart and Paul Meyer began to give more and more of his money away. He enjoyed giving so much that toward the end of his life, he was giving away more than 90% of what he earned. He was incredibly generous with Christian causes and put more than 500 youth through college.
Although I served on Ken Blanchard’s, “Lead Like Jesus” board with Paul Meyer for several years I didn’t have much interaction with him personally. However, one morning during an activity designed to help us get better acquainted, I was assigned a seat with Paul Meyer on one side and his accountant on the other. There were just three of us at the table for the next forty-five minutes.
When I began asking probing questions, the accountant grinned and said, “Actually, it’s my job to make sure that Paul doesn’t give his money away faster than we take it in.” He then related a memorable incident when the two of them had taken a week-long, automobile trip across the mid-west. Along the way, Paul Meyer had shared his business card with ten different young people he’d met saying, “Call this number and I’ll help put you through college.” However, nine of the ten didn’t call simply because they didn’t believe it was for real.
The accountant then went on to relate the exception. “We were stopped at a highway construction site and Paul was intrigued with a young girl dressed in fatigues, wearing a helmet, holding a stop sign. He leaned out the window and struck up a conversation with her.
“Why are you working on construction?”
She said, “I’m working my way through college”
He asked, “Can’t your parents help you?”
She answered, “No, they’re not in a position to help right now.”
He asked, “What do you want to be?”
“My dream is to become a nurse someday”, she replied.
Paul Meyer gave her his card and said, “Young lady, I’m in the business of making dreams come true. Next week you call this number and I’ll see that you have the money to go to college.”
The following week the accountant got a phone call and the girl on the other end of the line said, “Last week some little old man said he’d help pay my way through college if I called this number. Is that true?” The accountant said, “Yes ma’am it is.”
As the accounted related that story to me, Paul Meyer’s face lit up and then he excitedly described how this young woman is now a nurse in a mid-western hospital because God had given him the resources to share with her. I immediately thought of Jesus’ promise, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Wouldn’t that be fun? Wouldn’t you like to have millions to give away to those in need? But the test is not what you’d do if you were a multi-millionaire, but what are you doing with what you have right now. God’s Word promises if we’re faithful with little He will entrust us with much.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)