You call that generous?

This week Forbes hailed Mark Zuckerberg as one of “the most generous” people in America.

I don’t think their standards are anything like God’s.

Mr. Zuckerberg, in case you didn’t know, founded Facebook. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are worth $9.6 billion, according to Forbes. And in 2012, they gave away nearly $500 million.

It is so tempting to make fun of that – to riff about having to live on just $9.1 billion – but that is a lot of money to give away, and they are doing a lot more good with their money than many folks are. So I’ll only point out that $500 million is a little more than 5 percent of $9.6 billion.

And I only point that out to trick you.

You see, when I write, “5 percent,” it’s just natural if you think of 10 percent, a figure that many folks use when talking about biblical giving.

But that’s off by a factor of 10.

“And He [Jesus] looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.” (Luke 21:1-4)

Jesus wasn’t particularly impressed with the offerings of the rich. But He took a moment to contrast that with the widow’s giving. And this points to a fact about us as believers.

Jesus bought us with a price – a price we could not pay. We belong to Him, and everything we have comes from Him and belongs to Him as well. The biblical standard is 100 percent.

Thinking about Mr. Zuckerberg’s gift, I realized that I was feeling pretty good about the fact that my giving far exceeds a tithe (10 percent), even though my gross ministry income is less than 0.01 percent of what he gave. But I also realized that for all I have learned about generosity, I may be going about it backwards.

I have been listening and obeying as God tells me to give. That’s not a bad start.

But if it all belongs to Him, shouldn’t I be planning to give it all to Him, and listening to see what He wants me to spend on my needs?

Think of it this way: When you’re offered an opportunity to give, and you feel prompted to do so, do you usually stop yourself and say, “I’ll pray about it”? And how do you react when you feel like buying something? If you’re like me – and I suspect like most believers – you’re hesitant to give God’s money back to Him but you feel free to spend it on yourself.

So I ask you: Isn’t that backwards?

I’m not sure how this would work, or where it will take me. But it’s definitely something worth thinking about, and perhaps worthy of some changes in my life.