Christmas Carolers Receive No Praise for Giving

It was a chilly December evening in downtown Chicago, and about a dozen of us from a suburban Christian college were Christmas caroling. My best friend, ...

Bowling Acquaintance Donates Kidney

In Bowling Alone, Robert D. Putnam writes:

Before October 29, 1997, John Lambert and Andy Boschma knew each other only through their local bowling league ...

Giving Like a Hobbit

Thanks to the Hollywood film The Lord of the Rings, a new generation of Americans has been introduced to hobbits. J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional creatures ...

Olympian's Kindness Earns Medal

The rarest medal in the Olympics wasn't created from gold, but a bolt.

The story begins on a cold, winter afternoon in Innsbruck at the 1964 Olympic ...

Everyday Compassion

A Chicago-based newspaper, StreetWise, is sold by homeless people, who collect a portion of the proceeds. One day as I walked to work, I passed a StreetWise ...

John Wesley's Wholehearted Generosity

John Wesley (1703-1791) knew plenty about economic uncertainty. In his day, Britain experienced rapid urbanization and the beginnings of industrialization. ...

Faking Generosity

A. A. Milne (author of the Winnie the Pooh books) wrote a seasonal piece entitled, "A Hint for Next Christmas." He tells of a friend named William ...

Tithe Tied Up in Brooms

A church member stopped the pastor and angrily complained that the church had purchased five new brooms—an expenditure that he thought was completely ...

"Pay It Forward": Exponential Kindness

Pay It Forward is a movie about a seventh grader's ingenious plan to make a difference in the world. On the first day of school, Trevor McKinney (played ...

"It's a Wonderful Life": Supportive Fellowship

The movie It's a Wonderful Life celebrates one man's extraordinary generosity. George Bailey, the proprietor of a building and loan institution, ...