Question from a reader:
I noticed that the Compassion logo appears on Giving Is the Good Life. What’s the connection between your book and their ministry?
Answer from Randy Alcorn:
Our family has continuously sponsored a number of children through Compassion for over 30 years, since our daughters were small. It seems the photos of Compassion children, and their letters to us, have always been on our refrigerator. Those are heartwarming memories.
When one of my favorite publishers, Tyndale House, approached me about doing a book in connection with Compassion International, I was very interested. Tyndale and Compassion have a partnership, and they wondered if I would write a book about incorporating generous giving into our lifestyles to do more to help the world’s needy. Since this has always been one of our family’s core values, it seemed like a good fit.
While I had written The Treasure Principle eighteen years ago, then updated it not long ago, I had a lot more stories I wanted to tell. This time I decided to address the biblical theme of “the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19). I’ve been struck for years by how in a remarkably clear way, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 shares the bad news about wealth, and 1 Timothy 6:17-19 gives the good news. And that positive news is that we can share with others the wealth God has entrusted to us in a way that helps the needy, and also—remarkably—will result in God granting us eternal rewards as well as greatly enriching our present lives. Giving Is the Good Life is the resulting book from my study of this passage.
Since 1990, Nanci and I have given away all the royalties from my books, which have sold over eleven million copies. Among the many causes we and our organization Eternal Perspective Ministries have supported are famine relief, development, education, microenterprise, clean water, hygiene, and other ways of helping children all over the world, including unborn children. Because our core values overlap with Compassion’s, we decided to give half of the royalties from Giving Is the Good Life (as well as from the booklet Are You Living the Good Life?) to Compassion International. The rest will go to a variety of other causes also close to our hearts, including Bible translation, church planting, world evangelism, rescue from sex trafficking, and prolife work.
Giving Is the Good Life includes more than seventy short stories of generous givers. Many of these people I have met personally, but I’ve also drawn stories from various ministries, including Compassion International, Operation Mobilization, Jesus Film Project, and others. The book also includes inspirational stories I’ve gleaned from Generous Giving, Generosity Path, JoyGiving.org, Ilikegiving.com, and Gospel Patrons. Some of these stories are integrated into the main text, while others are featured in sidebars. They illustrate the biblical principles related to giving and will broaden readers’ minds to many creative and exciting ways to give that most people may never have considered.
Jesus, who told His disciples “Let the little children come to me,” proved His love for children by becoming one, and giving His life for every child. I believe Compassion’s work in helping needy children around the world is close to the heart of Jesus, and it’s a great honor to support Compassion and many other worthy organizations through my writing.
