A Life Intentionally Lived with Larry O’Nan | Ep. 68
On this week’s episode of The True North Show I am joined by Larry O’Nan, a wonderful human who lives his life with intention, every single day. Larry shares his morning routine and how just one question gives him the insight and focus to best serve the people he loves and his community. Our conversation is filled with purpose, passion and Larry’s journey between the two books he has written. You will have no choice but to be incredibly inspired listening to this episode, what a joy it was to spend this time with Larry.
Bio:
Larry W. O’Nan, a 1966 graduate of the University of Colorado, dedicated 18 years as a full-time staff member of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ). During this time, Larry’s unwavering dedication led to the accelerated growth of numerous fund development initiatives, resulting in tens of millions raised for evangelism and development programs worldwide.
In 1984, Larry’s unparalleled expertise in fund development led him to join the Management Development Associates team as vice president of stewardship strategies. Over the next 30 years, he counseled Christian ministries, instilling confidence in them as he helped implement stewardship-focused programs that raised tens of millions of dollars for various ministry purposes.
Even today, Larry continues to be actively involved in the field. He speaks about lifestyle stewardship and fund development practices in the United States and abroad. As an active volunteer, he is a recognized specialist in non-profit board governance, non-profit management, project management, significant gifts strategy design and implementation, and funding campaigns.
Larry has contributed significantly to fund development and stewardship strategies as an author. His books, Giving Yourself Away (1984) and Intentional Living and Giving (2024), are widely recognized for their insights and practical advice.
His most recent release, Intentional Living and Giving, helps individuals understand their purpose for living by unpacking proven principles for a life of personal fulfillment rather than a life of confusion and fear. By weaving relatable stories with insight and practical application throughout, individuals can grasp the foundational principles of biblical lifestyle stewardship in tangible ways. This book is crafted for self-reflection and personal growth or as a small group study. It serves as a mad that leads from confusion and crippling fear to thriving and living an empowered life of contentment.
Use this link to purchase Larry’s latest book – Intentional Living and Giving:
Transcript:
Megan North [00:34]
Hello and welcome to the True North Show. I’m your host, Megan North, and I’d like to start by thanking the sponsors of the show: Quantum Awakening, Beth Lewis, Ann C. Clarke, and my guest who paid to be featured.
My guest joining me today is Larry W. O’Nan. If you have ever wrestled with the question of what it truly means to live with purpose, intention, and genuine fulfilment, then this conversation is going to land very deeply for you today.
Larry is one of the most respected and experienced voices in the world of stewardship and intentional living, with a career spanning more than five decades of extraordinary service. He spent 18 years with CRU, Campus Crusade for Christ, helping raise tens of millions of dollars for evangelism and development programs around the world. He then spent 30 years as Vice President of Stewardship Strategies at Management Development Associates, counselling Christian ministries and helping them build programs that change lives on a global scale.
Even today, Larry continues to speak internationally, volunteer his expertise, and pour himself into the work he has dedicated his life to. He is also the author of two remarkable books: Giving Yourself Away, published in 1984, and his most recent release, Intentional Living and Giving, a deeply practical guide that takes readers on a journey from confusion and fear to a life of genuine contentment, purpose, and empowered living.
At the heart of everything Larry does is a simple but profound belief: when we understand our true purpose for living, everything else begins to fall into place. Larry, it is an absolute honour and genuine privilege to welcome you to the True North Show today.
Larry O’Nan [02:43]
Well, it’s great to join you today, Megan. I’m just glad to be a part of your audience and a part of our conversation today.
Megan North [02:49]
Wonderful. I’m really looking forward to this conversation.
Larry has spent more than five decades helping people and organisations understand what it truly means to give, serve, and live with genuine intention. Even after all these years, he’s still speaking, writing, and pouring himself into the work he loves. Stay with us, because when we come back, Larry is going to share what a lifetime of intentional living has taught him about purpose, fulfilment, and what it means to truly thrive.
Welcome back to the True North Show. I’m here with author, stewardship strategist, and all-round extraordinary human being, Larry O’Nan. We’re about to explore one of the most important questions any of us will ever sit with: what does it actually mean to live with genuine intention? And what becomes possible when we finally do?
So Larry, I’d love to start at the beginning. It sounds like your purpose and true north were calling you very early on in your career. Is that how it felt to you, or was it something different?
Larry O’Nan [04:42]
You know, I was so busy living life that I didn’t know I was being called to anything back in those days. I think so many times people think they’re going someplace.
I had an idea. When I was in high school, I fell in love with the theatre. The more I was in theatre, acting in everything, I was fascinated by the directing aspect, probably more so than the acting. I decided to major in college in theatre and I was going to become either a person in Hollywood or a person in New York. It was going to be on the stage.
It was a radical shift when I realised, in my junior year, I was sitting in a class with probably 15 or 20 others. We were all pretty good at our craft. Most of them were actors, some aspiring to be directors. I sat there one afternoon and thought: nobody in this room is themselves anymore. They had all learned to act apart, and were acting their entire lives out. Before, you would put on a character for a play and switch gears on and off the stage. But I discovered as a junior that most everybody in the room was playing somebody else. I didn’t know who anyone in the room really was. And I was probably in a search of my own, wondering who I was.
This is no way to live a life, I thought, if you’re always putting on makeup and always doing something that’s not yourself. I was attracted to that world because in my fundamentalist upbringing, I was glad to escape and become wicked people and happy people and sad people. I knew how to play the roles. But it really struck me that day, and that was probably the beginning of a whole different trajectory.
Up until then I hadn’t thought about where I was going, other than someday I’d be on one of the two sides of the United States doing my thing on the stage. But in that desperation of wondering who I really was, I started to see a real spiritual dynamic that was absolutely critical.
As a junior, I ran into two engineers who had no interest in acting at all. They loved their relationship with Jesus Christ. I thought: this can’t be true. Engineers aren’t that smart. But those two guys really showed me that you could live a victorious life every day.
It started to change how I saw everything. And then I had to say: okay, what do I do with my five years of experience in theatre? It was a radical shift I had to go through in a matter of weeks, because I was going to graduate in about a year and a half and I was now making a major change in direction. That spiritual connection changed the trajectory of where I was going.
I went to a counsellor and they told me, well, all these hours of theatre arts are great, but what are you going to do with them? Let’s move you to the school of education and turn you into a drama coach. So I graduated from the University of Colorado with a major in English and a major in theatre, planning to be a secondary school teacher and a drama coach. I never did any of that, but that was how I escaped from school.
It was the beginning of saying: okay, Larry, you’ve got to get your act together. Why are you really here and where are you really going? Up until that time, it was kind of live for the day and let today fill in the gaps.
Megan North [08:35]
And so up until that point, was religion, or the thought of God or Jesus, obviously not part of your life?
Larry O’Nan [08:46]
It was a part of my life, but it was strictly a religious experience. My father was a pastor of a church in western Colorado. It was post-war. Everybody went to church. That was part of the routine of the culture. I didn’t dislike any of it, but I saw a lot of phoniness in it as well. I remember two little old ladies who wouldn’t speak to each other for three or four years because they disagreed on the colour of the fellowship hall paint.
This is really trite, I thought. It wasn’t a faith experience. It was being very religious, and sometimes very carnal, as the Bible would call it. It wasn’t something I rejected, but it didn’t make sense in terms of living life. It was just another experience I was having as a kid.
When I was a junior in college, on my own, I was saying: this is my life to live. It wasn’t what I was entrusted to live on behalf of my folks so they would think I was a good kid. It became a very different experience. It was a turning point, definitely.
Megan North [10:05]
I grew up Catholic, in a Catholic family and household. I agree with you in the sense that I used to sit in church thinking: why do we go every week? I pray every day, I’ve got trust, I know I’m looked after, I have a connection with God or whoever I wanted to have a connection with. But the going to church and putting on the face, yeah, I can really relate to how you felt. Sometimes it feels like: well, you have to go to church.
Larry O’Nan [10:45]
I learned to play that role too. I was really good at playing that role.
There is a significant difference that I think many people are confused about. They talk about their religious experience. And all of religious experience worldwide, no matter what organisation or background you have, is man seeking to relate to God. What I discovered is that Christianity is not a religion in that sense. It’s God saying: I’ve got an answer for you to relate to me.
That changes everything around. In the form of religion, how you pray, how you kneel, how you walk, the traditions, a lot of that is man-made, trying to make themselves look right or appeal to God.
Christianity was never designed that way. It starts in Genesis. The Old Testament and the Hebrew Judeo-Christian first five books, called the Pentateuch, are the Jewish core of the Old Testament. In the second chapter, it talks about God coming down to walk every evening with Adam and Eve. The infinite God wanted to have a relationship with his creation. He came down to be with Adam and Eve. He did not take them up.
He also gave them the freedom to think on their own. That got them in trouble in Genesis chapter three.
The intention was: I want to relate to you, and I will come and ask you questions and we will talk about the day. When people think about that picture, here is the holy, infinite God coming down to walk around with two people in their purest, most honest form. It doesn’t quite fit our structure of what we think a relationship with God would be.
Megan North [12:39]
Yeah.
Larry O’Nan [12:40]
And they blew it. Because they chose to do something else. They intentionally broke what he had planned for them.
Then it became a question of how Adam and Eve were going to reconnect with God. They became religious, because they tried to figure him out again. And he said: I’ve got a plan, but you’ve got to follow my plan.
So you get into 66 books of the Bible written over 1,600 years and you discover that unique plan of God reaching down to help man.
I didn’t know that back in my junior year of college, but I started to realise Larry had to get on a different track. Every day of life became a learning experience. I think many people live a slice of life and they blame God for the outcome. But circumstances are often the result of your own behaviour. Even accidents, slipping and falling. Usually we have to live with the consequences of our own choices. People blame God for their consequences. God didn’t put the sidewalk in the way. It was your foot that got in the way.
I started figuring some things out, but it was a learning experience every day. And even today, it’s still a learning experience. I’ve never stopped learning. You never arrive. But it’s been a fun trip.
Larry O’Nan [14:25]
Growing like that, you’re going to have a lot of adversity. I don’t think people like the idea of having sorrow, having grief, having setbacks, living with death in the family. But all of those things are what caused me to grow the most, because I was exercising my faith in the context of bad circumstances.
In my job experience, probably four or five times I’ve been let go. If it wasn’t for those experiences, I would not have grown through them.
Ten years ago, my spouse of 45 years died of a glioblastoma brain tumour. That was probably one of the greatest recent growing experiences I went through. The loss of your best friend. I don’t like to use the word “died.” I say she just made a change of address.
Because we were in sync with what we believed. To me, she just moved out of my home and moved somewhere else. It was a learning experience to even be able to take on that attitude. I see people stuck in grief that happened 10 years ago. They can’t get over it because they’re focused on how it affected them, rather than on the benefit it may hold for somebody else.
Life is full of those seasons. If people think life is always rosy, there’s a lot of good in life, but an awful lot of growth happens in the seasons of adversity. If you allow yourself to grow in that season.
Megan North [16:18]
I did my biggest growth about twelve years ago when I lost my mum, and then ten years ago, my dad. That experience was very profound. No one expects to lose their parents, but eventually you do. I did some massive personal growth through that process and I still am. I look at it as my parents now giving me the gift of wisdom, because of everything I learned through that process. And I’m grateful for that.
Larry O’Nan [16:56]
What was happening in those experiences is that you start putting things into file cabinets in your brain. You store those experiences. It’s not that your mum and dad reached down and touched you today, but your file cabinet came open, and the experience of your parents says: that’s exactly what I needed because that’s how they did it with me, or this is how I won’t do it because that’s how they did it to me.
That file cabinet is a lot of times what we go to when we need to find the resource to figure out the next move.
Megan North [17:29]
Yeah.
Larry O’Nan [17:30]
Every step in life, I believe sometimes we are foolish and we have to live with the consequences of bad behaviour. In the United States recently, two young men at a university died over a weekend, both likely related to drugs. The consequences of using a foreign substance that was not designed for you created their deaths. It’s sad for the parents, sad for everybody. But what can we learn from that? What can we learn from tragedies that will help us, or benefit us at a future date?
Every action we take all day long is building that file cabinet full of insights that we could use, if we choose to use them.
Megan North [18:36]
Absolutely. For me, I talk about it as innate trust. I have innate trust that my guides, my mum and dad, God, creator, everyone, they’re there. They want us to have the best life ever. They’re supporting us. And I love what you’re saying about the filing cabinet. The experiences we go through, we learn from them, we get wisdom, and then all these other things start to come into our path that help us move on. Sometimes to a different path, or the path you needed to go down because of that experience. For me, I’m constantly in that trust. I trust that I’m always going to be okay. I trust that I’m always going to be guided.
Larry O’Nan [19:23]
And that’s how I look at it too. I go back to Old Testament scripture. My mum taught me Bible verses when I was young. My hometown didn’t have television, so we’d memorise things together.
One Old Testament passage has God speaking to one of his leaders, saying: I’ve got plans for you, and they are not for disaster and not for harm. It’s for your good, and I’m going to see to it that you make it. You can claim that passage out of context, but when you see the big picture of God, he never intended for you to live through bad consequences. Sometimes he allows bad consequences to get your attention, because he needs your attention for you to move on in a relationship with him. If we’re void of any relationship with the holiness of God, we’re going to be really messed up, because we weren’t created to be here isolated from any greater plan.
There’s a big plan out there.
Megan North [20:42]
Yes, there is. And so I want to talk about that. A belief that runs through your work is that when we understand our true purpose for living, everything else falls into place. But there are a lot of people who spend their entire lives never really landing on that purpose. Why do you think that is? What gets in the way? What have you seen in your career?
Larry O’Nan [21:20]
For the sake of illustration, I’ll take you back to Genesis two. Adam and Eve got off track because they decided to be disobedient to the direction God was leading for them.
I’m very passionate about the word lifestyle stewardship, because lifestyle stewardship is doing what God planned for you to do. The word steward means managing somebody else’s affairs.
Think about the steward on an airplane. You see these people coming up and down the aisle. They’re not there primarily to serve you drinks, although they do that to keep you calm. They’re hired by the airline to keep control of a multi-million-dollar piece of equipment. Those people are hired and paid to keep everything in order so that plane can land safely.
Or think about an accountant. Accountants are stewards of somebody else’s money. They’re managing money that isn’t theirs.
So when I realised that we don’t own anything, and this was the earth-shattering experience I had, I discovered that in God’s economy, he put me here to be a steward. He came walking with me in the garden to see how I was doing in my stewardship. He was a boss who was uniquely concerned about Larry O’Nan.
Whether you believe in God or not, you are a steward. The question is: are you going to be an effective steward, coming on behalf of the assignment you were given? Or are you going to ignore who sent you here in the first place?
When we come to grips with the idea that we don’t own anything, everything changes. The word “give” in English is unfortunate, because it sounds like when I give you something, I’m losing it. But in the Old Testament, God was entrusting things to us. So when God entrusts me with something, the question becomes: how do I manage my time, my talent, my treasure, the attributes and skills I have?
I’ve got a skill in acting and drama and speech and theatre. I have no ability in the engineering world. It would be stupid for me to try to figure out how to get to the moon, but I’m glad some people can figure that out, because they’re utilising their skills correctly.
It is both spiritual and very practical. I’m uniquely made to do certain things. If I can help you do what I’m strong in, I can be a real blessing to you. But if you want me to do what I’m weak in, you will not be happy with the outcome.
Megan North [27:24]
You’d be exhausted.
Larry O’Nan [27:25]
Exactly. I’m not really good at numbers. Even though I’ve dealt with fund development for years, numbers aren’t my thing.
Right now I’m a member of the board of a ministry called Little Feet and Friends in the Philippines. It’s preschools for very small children. I’ve been setting up a Google Suite for every one of the schools there. I am not working in my strength doing that. I can work on it for an hour or two and I’m exhausted. But when I work in my strength, I can do it 24 hours a day and never take a break, because I know that’s what I was created to do and how I can help you.
Please don’t ask me to work on your finances, because you’re not going to be happy and I’m going to be miserable and tired the whole time.
Everybody in life has to ask: what is it that I was uniquely created to do? My wife, for years of our marriage, she loved detail. After she changed her address to eternity, I kept leaving things on her desk and she wouldn’t come back to do them. It was very frustrating, because she was good at that.
I think we need to embrace the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and Larry O’Nan is different from you, Megan. Thankfully we are. We’re contributing in unique ways. When we add our strengths to a task, you thrive and I thrive.
I think people are not thriving today because they don’t know who they really are. I swim three days a week at 5am. It’s been a habit for 20 years. I swim alongside a man who’s at least ten years younger than me. He’s commented many times: I can’t handle this retirement. I have nothing to do. And I’m thinking: I’ve got so much to do I don’t know if I can get through everything on my list today. Because I’m thriving in my strength.
The worst thing retired people can do is land in front of a television and contemplate their navel for four or five hours a day. That’s not what you were designed to do. You were designed to keep busy to the very end. I see people thriving in their nineties because they have a sense of purpose and direction. And I see people floundering in their seventies because they’re caught up in doctors’ offices.
Megan North [29:37]
I think it’s a really interesting point, Larry. In my parents’ generation, you went to school, met someone, got married, had a family, bought a house, had a job for 40 or 50 years, then retired. If you’re in a job you really love, and you’re in that flow, like when I’m in flow I lose track of time, sounds like you do too. But if you’ve spent 40 or 50 years in a job and you retire and you’ve never really done what you wanted to do, then what do you do after that? I can completely relate to people feeling empty because they’re not living their full purpose.
Larry O’Nan [30:26]
Well, thinking about my swimming partner, okay, first of all, there’s a spiritual dynamic he may be missing. Why is he here? And secondly, what did you do well in life? Where can you go, even volunteer your time, to do the same thing you did but help feed people in your city or help a church do something else?
I know a woman who has major health issues. In her younger years she really focused on prayer. She feels that in her current limitations, she wants to know people’s prayer requests. During the daytime when she can’t do much else, she’s got her checklists and she’s working through them. It’s a job she can do in this season of her life.
Whether you’re 20 or in your eighties, we’re all designed to contribute. I’ve got two grandsons in their early 20s, one in Dallas and one in Northern California. They both just got married within six months of each other. They are just beginning the journey of life. And I’m looking at a calendar thinking I can’t make a commitment beyond 10 or 15 years because I likely won’t be here. That’s a different perspective. But I need to be busy up to the day I change addresses, because we were made by the creator to fulfil his desire for us.
In my whole understanding of this, it’s God to me, and then it’s me to somebody else. If I take it all in, it’s self-serving. When I take it in and then help you, or the listeners today, maybe I can help somebody else. Because I was designed to be involved in people’s lives.
I think we’ve got a responsibility to help people do their job. And what many people do is they don’t think there’s a job to be done. They say: my purpose was working at Procter and Gamble and now I have nothing to do. No, what were you doing well at Procter and Gamble? How can you transfer that to somebody else’s needs? Well, I don’t want to go to all that work. Do it two days a week and you’ll feel better about yourself.
Megan North [33:57]
Yeah.
Larry O’Nan [33:58]
Even writing my books. I wrote them not because I’m looking to be an author. I’ve written a lot over the years with an English major. Writing is there, but I’m not motivated by writing another book. I’m motivated by helping people live life. If it means a book should be written and I’ve got the skills, then I should write a book.
When I got into the content of lifestyle stewardship, I had no plans to write a book about it. It just started changing how my wife and I and our team, our families, all started to change because our attitude shifted. We realised we were partners in a huge plan, and we were fulfilling that plan by being good partners.
Then we started asking: how does this impact our work? We were doing fund development, fundraising. We changed things around. We didn’t like the word “donors” anymore. Donors are people who get a needle in the arm and have something extracted. You took something from them, maybe under sympathy or semi-false pretences.
I don’t believe in having donors. I want partners who want to give out of the generosity of their hearts, and who are equally involved in what the mission is. A person in Florida or in Australia who gives to Little Feet and Friends is helping a child get a jumpstart in life. But is it only the child getting the jumpstart? The person giving the money is equally involved in that child’s life, because without their giving, the child wouldn’t be there.
It’s not just about helping the kid. It’s about all of us working together. Partners touch each other. Partners really feel each other. When I grasp hands, is my left hand more important than my right? No, they’re equal. We’re doing this together. The mission is not more important than my contribution. They’re equally important to the process.
I really want people to say: I can make a difference. Maybe I can volunteer to wipe tables at a homeless shelter and let people know that somebody really cares for them.
A pastor said something a few weeks ago that stayed with me: living things grow. Growing things change. Change is always uncomfortable.
And when you think about that, that’s what we’re in the business of.
Megan North [37:47]
Yeah. With nine billion people in the world now, there’s always going to be someone who needs your help. We can’t expect one or two people to be looking after everyone. There’s always something someone can do to help.
Larry O’Nan [38:08]
And you’ve got to find where that is.
A few weeks ago I was in the Philippines. I spent four days with the Okta tribes. I’d never heard of them until eight weeks ago. There are thousands of them. They’re an indigenous group, there long before the Spanish arrived, who were in the Philippines for 350 years. These are the original people of the Philippines, but they’re looked down on by the broader Filipino culture. They live in the forest. They don’t have what you and I would consider necessities.
I met a man who is ministering to these Okta tribal people. He speaks five languages, including three Okta languages, Tagalog, and English. He was put in that environment when he was two years old and grew up in the culture. That’s how he knows them. I can’t be effective in the Okta tribe. But I can give him resources and thinking that lets him be effective. My job for the Oktas is not to move there. I would be useless there.
I’m there to be a partner with him, through a group called Care and Grace. This couple, his wife has a master’s in nursing, and they literally live with the people. I asked how many people live in his house. He said they’ve got 51 people living there right now. I saw it: he and his wife live in maybe 300 square feet, and 51 Okta tribal people live there as well. Because when they live there, they’re closer to work or school. He provides them a hammock or a floor to sleep on, so they only have to walk two miles to where they need to go, rather than six hours.
That’s not what we’re all called to do. But we’re all called to say: if that’s a need, let’s fill it.
The word intentional comes to mind a lot. If we were a lot more intentional about what we were doing every single day, we’d be getting a lot more done.
Megan North [40:57]
Yeah, absolutely.
Larry O’Nan [41:00]
I’m excited about the idea that what I’ve learned can be shared with others. We were sharing it in seminars, using it in our strategies, teaching it in different ways. And somebody said: you need to write all this down.
In 1985, I created the book Giving Yourself Away. A lot of the core principles from 1985 were still there in 2006. Principles don’t change. Stories and circumstances do.
I was in Northern Ireland about three or four years ago, and there was a group of Eastern European people, about eight or nine of us. They were saying: we can’t find anything to teach people what lifestyle stewardship actually is. It just doesn’t exist. I sat in the room and thought: okay, Larry, you did it once. You need to go back and repolish and revisit that entire thought so that the alpha and Gen Z generations have something to go to for biblical truth about lifestyle stewardship.
So I created another book built on all the core principles, with 25 years of updated stories and context. But the message is not too different. It’s just that what I wrote in 1985 is hard to find now, and people can find what I wrote recently anywhere books are sold.
It wasn’t because I was anxious to write another book. There was an audience that did not know the principles behind lifestyle stewardship, and I want to make sure people have access to understanding how they live every day in a way that’s transformative and thriving, rather than depleted and miserable.
Megan North [43:00]
And the way you weave relatable stories throughout your books, alongside practical applications, I love that. Why was that approach so important to you? And is there one story that you feel captures the heart of everything you wanted to say?
Larry O’Nan [43:29]
I guess I learn by stories. Maybe it’s the acting side of me. We learn far more by stories than by being told to memorise seven principles. If you go into a church and listen to a pastor, he is using the worst method of communication to get his point across that has ever existed. It’s a speech. All we do is watch a person speak and we remember one line, or one phrase.
In adult education, it’s about stories and engagement. If you’re really going to reach an adult, and probably kids too, you get them to do things. You move them around. You mix them up. You have different activities. My daughter is a first grade teacher, and some of her lessons are on the floor with the kids in circles. Sometimes they’re in groups of four. Sometimes they stand up in the back of the room and test each other. Because they learn by participation far more than by lecture.
The stories get their attention. I’ve had numerous people tell me, when they’re reading Intentional Living and Giving, they’ll say: I just read X story. They don’t tell me what chapter they’re on. They remember the story. The story leads into biblical truth. The book is full of biblical concepts. Without apology, it’s a faith book. But it’s a faith book full of practicality, because it’s not designed to be religious. It’s designed to help you live.
So, one childhood story. In 1947, my father was a church planter. He built a small church, and on the day of dedication he commented: all that’s missing from our church now is a bell for the belfry. It was a New England-style church with an old-fashioned steeple, and dad couldn’t find a bell from an old schoolhouse. He’d been able to get pews and everything else, but all that was missing on dedication day was a bell for the belfry.
The pastor who was helping him with the dedication went back to his own church that night and mentioned it to his congregation: I was at a dedication of a new church today. All that’s missing is a bell for the belfry.
There was a woman who had driven 20 miles to hear that pastor speak because she liked him and had heard him on the radio. All she heard that night was: that church doesn’t have a bell for the belfry.
So she went home and wrote a letter to a man named Ben Alexander. Post-World War II, there was a national radio program called the Heart’s Desire Program. She sat down and wrote a letter. Her heart’s desire was that this church would get a bell for its belfry.
One year later, over 224,000 pennies had arrived from across the United States. 38 states had participants. People were limited to giving only a penny. We were getting pennies from everywhere. People would say: here’s two pennies for my dog and two for my cat and two for me. The craziest stories came with them. Over 40 governors at the time wrote congratulatory letters. It made the front page of the New York Times.
The bell was made in California and shipped out to the church. It rang on Thanksgiving Day of 1948. It even made True Romance Magazine, where a couple who were getting a divorce, and the husband was leaving, heard the bell ring, and he fell back into his wife’s arms and they lived happily ever after.
But my point is the story behind the story. Why did Mrs. Weber write to Ben Alexander in the first place? Because she saw that if she took the initiative and asked, perhaps he might respond. And he responded by inviting his entire listening audience across the United States to join by giving no more than one penny each.
Every one of us can be a Helma Weber. Every one of us can see a bell ringing in a belfry if we just want to step out and do it. But you know what we do? We say: that’s somebody else’s job. I don’t have time for that. That’s not my thing.
Well, maybe it is your thing. Because Helma Weber could have gone home that night and done nothing.
And there would be no bell in the belfry.
It still hangs in the church in western Colorado today. Most people don’t know the story. But I know it because my dad was the pastor. I was three years old back then. Now I’m 82. You can do the maths.
Stories help us. Stories of life help us. Everybody’s life is full of stories. So let’s use the stories that God has already given us. Even if it’s a sad story, how did that sad story keep you going? What were the benefits? When you start to figure out the story, you may find it wasn’t as bad after all.
Writing about my wife’s death was one of the healthiest things I ever did. Because now I look back on it and can laugh about some of the things related to the darkest moments. The story is still the story.
Megan North [50:41]
Yes. And it’s one of the reasons I love giving guests like you a platform to share their story. I feel privileged to sit here and listen to people’s stories every week. It’s really beautiful.
Larry O’Nan [51:04]
Well, here’s another one that ties into a spiritual truth.
Megan North [51:10]
Larry, we actually only have a couple of minutes left, but happy for you to go ahead. Yeah.
Larry O’Nan [51:17]
As we wind this up, I’ll give it to you quickly.
In the New Testament it says God loves a cheerful giver. That’s a well-known verse. The word “cheerfulness” there is the word hilaros, which in Greek means to cause to shine like the sun. Why does God want us to cause to shine like the sun? God wants us to be a cheerful giver the way the sun can only give off heat and light. The word hilaros is also the root of hilarity. God gives to us with hilariousness. He wants me to give because he wants me to enjoy the experience of giving to help others.
When we just read “God loves a cheerful giver,” we think: that’s just something kids memorise. But there’s deep meaning behind it. Everybody has an opportunity to be what God intended them to be.
It comes through a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Those are key things. But it’s also about being very intentional. Every day you’ve got to say: I’m here for a purpose. What do I do today?
I get up every morning and say: what am I going to do that will impact the life of somebody else? That’s an intentional prayer to remind me that I’m not here to waste today.
So what can you do intentionally? The book Intentional Living and Giving is really centred on intentionality: what are you going to do today that will influence and impact the life of somebody else?
You can get the book and a bit more structured understanding. If you go to my website, there are blogs and an inventory where you can test your own stewardship and see how you’re doing. And it’s not about money. Money is only one of a hundred things you can give away. Don’t play the game of money, money, money. Money is one tangible thing we can see. But maybe you should close your phone and look at somebody right in the eye and listen to them.
God gave you two ears and one mouth. Listen more than you talk, keep your eyes on their eyes, and you’ll be amazed at what they tell you. But if you don’t give, you’re not going to benefit from even the receiving of that experience.
It’s a fun game. I love every minute of life because that’s what we were designed to do.
Megan North [54:01]
Just beautiful, Larry. I feel like you’ve just wrapped everything up in a bow for me. I’ve hardly had to do anything. I’ve just sat here and listened to everything you’ve shared. I haven’t even got time for my usual questions, so you’ll have to come back and I’ll ask you then.
Larry O’Nan [54:22]
We might schedule another visit.
Megan North [54:24]
Definitely. Thank you. I’m just filled with love and gratitude for everything about you, your intention and everything you do for yourself, your family, and everyone around you. I feel really privileged to now have you in my circle. So thank you for joining me today.
Larry O’Nan [54:46]
For you and Megan, and for anybody listening to our conversation: just go out and give yourself away today. You’ll start to discover that God’s got a plan for you. I want you to find help to get there. There’s good guidance available. I’m glad to be a guide if my book helps you. But more than anything else, just start by giving yourself away.
Megan North [55:06]
Beautiful. Thank you, Larry. I’d also like to thank all of my amazing dedicated audience, my supporters, and again my sponsors of the show. I hope you all have an amazing rest of the week and I look forward to seeing you again next week. Thank you so much, Larry.
Larry O’Nan [55:22]
It’s been fun to be with you today. Thank you, Megan, for the opportunity.
Megan North [55:25]
You’re welcome.
