When I was around eight years old, I remember seeing another boy on TV who won a Toys “R” Us shopping spree. He was given a shopping cart and told that he had free run of the toy store for five whole minutes. He could toss anything he wanted into the cart, and at the end of five minutes he could keep whatever was in the cart. That was the day that I learned about covetousness. He didn’t deserve those toys, I did! Besides, he was doing it all wrong—filling up his cart with stuffed animals that simply take up precious cargo space when he should have been ransacking the video game aisle to maximize his toy to cart ratio!
But that was a long time ago. After all, I was just a child. And when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. And by “childish ways,” I am referring to the toys of course. I am still a master coveter. Which is why I am always refreshingly humbled and encouraged when I find someone who is authentically generous. Recently, I have been fortunate enough to come across two of these individuals–our iPad 2 Giveaway winners.
David Kennedy is our Grand Prize winner. He won an iPad 2 and $500 of Accordance modules. I should note, these were not $500 of predetermined modules that we selected. Effectively, we gave David Kennedy a shopping cart. We told him that he had free run of our online store and could choose any $500 worth of modules that he wanted. As a longtime professor at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary who has been an avid user of Accordance since version 1.0, one can imagine how easy it would be for David to select $500 of modules that he could put to good use. So what does he choose? Nothing. That’s right, nothing. Instead, he writes me an email asking if it would be possible to break up his $500 into gift certificates that he could give to his students in order to spur them on in their studies with Accordance. Wow. David Kennedy, I am giving you the slow clap right now. You have shown this expert envier what true generosity looks like. Thank you for your encouraging example, and I am sure your students are quite appreciative as well!
Upon receiving David’s email, I was starting to feel convicted. However, I was certain that I could count on Alex Hyun, our Bonus Prize winner, to validate my instincts to hoard awesome prizes to myself. Sadly, Alex had also read Acts 20:35. Alex, a resident of Buena Park, CA who is working on getting his teaching credential, asked if he could donate his $250 of Accordance modules to his brother-in-law, who pastors a church in Brea, CA. Well played, Alex. I hope your brother-in-law is enjoying his new Accordance modules!
Now that you know some of the story behind our iPad 2 Giveaway winners, perhaps it will ease your jealousy if you are a master coveter like me. If not, there’s always our Bible a Day Giveaway to get your prize fix. With almost 20 more free Bibles to give out, you could be the next to win!