Pay It Backward and Forward

I was on the phone today with a friend who has a ministry with high net worth families. He and his colleagues send couples who have successfully charted legacy plans to meet with other couples who are struggling with how to balance their wealth and their desire to use it for God’s glory.

My friend said that his ministry is able to provide these services to build enduring family legacies with no charge to the recipients. Their secret sauce is this: families who have been helped in the past give to the ministry so that others can benefit from the ministry. That is called “paying it forward.”

After we finished our video meeting, I thought about what was often reported in the Chick-fil-A family when I was working with their ministries. It was always good to hear reports from the Customer Care department about stories from a drive-through customer (and sometimes even at the checkout counter inside—remember when we could do that?!) who would ask to pay for the order of the car behind them in the drive-through line. That was also called paying it forward, but I never understood that one. The drive-through customer was actually paying for the person BEHIND her/him, so how could it be paying it forward. Anyhow, I called that paying it backward.

That’s what happened when I asked Jesus to come into my heart. He took upon himself the burden of my sins of the past—paying it backward—and my sins of the future—paying it forward. Thank you Lord that you paid the check backward and forward, and my part of that transaction is to confess, repent, believe and transform to live to be more like You every day for the rest of my life.