Senior Partner

“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

Matthew 6:20

I have a ninety-five-year-old friend named Stanley Tam. Actually, he’s more than a friend; Stanley is one of my heroes. More than a half century ago, he made a decision to make God his Senior Partner. In one of the most unique corporate takeovers ever, Stanley legally transferred 51 percent of his business to God.

Stanley started the United States Plastic Corporation with $37 in capital. When he gave his business over to God, annual revenues were less than $200,000, but Stanley believed God would bless his business, and he wanted to honor God from the get-go.

At that point, most of us would have been patting ourselves on the back, but not Stanley. He felt convicted for keeping 49 percent for himself. After reading the parable about the merchant who found the pearl of great price and sold everything he had to obtain it, Stanley made a decision to divest himself of all his shares.

On January 15, 1955, every share of stock was transferred to his Senior Partner, and Stanley became a salaried employee of the company he had started. Since the day Stanley made that defining decision, he has given away more than $120 million.

Stanley spoke at National Community Church a few years ago, and afterward we shared one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had. I ate up every word that came out of his mouth. The wisdom he dispensed in one hour will last a lifetime. In his matter-of-fact manner, Stanley said, “God’s shovel is always bigger than ours.” Translation: “We cannot outgive God.” Stanley discovered the key that unlocks the joy of generosity: what we keep we ultimately lose; what we give away we ultimately get back. So Stanley said, “I just send it ahead by giving it away.” Then Stanley threw out a one-liner that is more insightful than anything I’ve learned in the process of gaining three seminary degrees: “God cannot reward Abraham yet because his seed is still multiplying.”

The same is true of Stanley. It will take quite a while to calculate his reward in heaven — not because of the amount given but because of the percentage. Stanley came awfully close to giving away 100 percent. As Stanley puts it, “A man can eat only one meal at a time, wear only one suit of clothes at a time, drive only one car at a time. All this I have. Isn’t that enough?”

The Same God

Toward the end of our meal, Stanley shared one last thought that doubled as dessert. I’m not sure if it’s what he said or how he said it, but it struck me as a simple profundity. Stanley said, “I’ve got the same God that George Müller has.”

The same God who helped George Müller raise tens of millions of dollars is the same God who helped Stanley Tam give away tens of millions of dollars! And He’s the same God who can accomplish the plans and purposes He has put in your heart. If it’s God-ordained, it’s inevitable.

Few things are as inspiring as seeing childlike faith in a very old person. That’s Stanley Tam. He is the youngest oldest person I know. He simply takes God at His word. And when we take God at His word, God stands by His word.

One of the mistakes we make in reading history, whether biblical history or history in general, is thinking that those who lived before us were different from us. They weren’t. If God did it for them, He can do it for us. And if we do what they did in the Bible, I’m convinced that God will do what He did. Nothing has changed. God wants to renew His deeds in our day. But we need to pray the price. Leonard Ravenhill put it this way:

Legacy

I recently had the privilege of speaking at a conference hosted by a wonderful organization called Generous Giving. The focus of this annual gathering of some of the wealthiest Christians in the country is giving generously and strategically to kingdom causes. While there, I met some members of the Maclellan Family Foundation. They are among the most respected philanthropists in the world, and leaders in the generosity movement.

On June 7, 1857, a Scotsman named Thomas Maclellan made a covenant with the All in All. That covenant, made on his twentieth birthday, was renewed on his fiftieth and seventieth birthdays. More than five generations later, the seeds he sowed are still multiplying in the millions of dollars that are given away. But the genealogy of generosity traces back to one defining prayer.

The greatest legacy a person can leave is a complete surrender of their life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. If we don’t hold out on God, God won’t hold out on us. Take God at His promise as expressed by the psalmist: “No good thing^c does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” And these good things will pass from generation to generation and become great things. God will answer our prayers in the lives of offspring we won’t meet until the Father’s family reunion at the marriage supper of the Lamb. But every prayer we pray, every gift we give, every sacrifice we make, and every step of faith we take is an inheritance left to the next generation. And our prayers live on, long after we die, in their lives.

What we keep we ultimately lose; what we give away we ultimately get back.