The man detested the cat. He was allergic to cat hair. He hated the smell of the litter box. He couldn’t stand the scratching on the furniture and he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep because the cat kept jumping on the bed. When his wife was out of town for the weekend, he put the cat in a bag with some rocks, dumped it in the East river, and uttered a joyful good-bye to the cat. When his wife returned and could not find her cat, she was overwhelmed with grief. Her husband said "Look honey, I know how much that cat meant to you. I’m going to put an ad in the paper and give a reward of $1000 to anyone who finds the cat." No cat showed up, so a few days later he said, "Honey, you mean more to me than anything in the world. If that cat is precious to you, it’s precious to me. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll buy another ad and raise the ante. We’ll increase the reward to $10,000. A friend saw the ad and exclaimed "You must crazy! There isn’t a cat on earth that is worth that much money."
The man replied, "Well, when you know what I know, you can afford to be generous."
When you know what YOU know, YOU can afford to be generous.
When you know that your time on earth is fleeting and your days here are short,
When you know that eternity is long,
When you know that money does not buy happiness,
When you know that God will provide all that you need,
When you know that treasures in heaven wait for those give to Kingdom work,
When you know that God owns it all.
When you know that the rules actually set you free to play the game.