Kenny Perry

There was a time when it looked like Kenny Perry was never going to succeed on the PGA Tour. He was 26 years old, with two children in diapers and no money to pay to qualify for the tour.

Then Ronnie Ferguson, an elder at the Church of Christ in Franklin, Kentucky, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Ferguson would give Perry the $5000 he needed to try to qualify, but there was one string attached.

If he failed, Perry didn’t owe him anything. However, if he did make it as a professional golfer, Perry would give 5% of his earnings to David Lipscomb University, a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Over the next 22 years, Perry won 11 PGA tournaments and earned $25 million. Many young people have been trained for Christian ministry because of one man’s generosity.

Maybe you don’t have an extra $5000 lying around, but most of us have some money that we can invest in the life of someone who shows promise. Let’s be generous with what we have. Maybe in doing so, we can give someone a chance to do something great.