When one thinks of living generously, usually our minds go to financial donations, not a physical donation. But for Tim Connor, it ended up being very personal: a kidney donation.
If you asked Tim, he would have considered himself a generous guy, but God had a different plan and revealed it through the Generosity Tyler event last February.
Tim was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post from a friend. This friend knew of someone who needed a kidney. “I heard God say that I needed to look into that. I wish I could tell you that in that moment, I responded to God in obedience, but I didn’t.”
The Generosity Tyler event in February of 2020 was more of a launch to the community to describe what it would look like. “I went into the event going, ‘This is for other people. This isn’t for me. It’s about encouraging others in our community. I was totally not prepared for what God was going to say to me,’” said Tim.
During the event, Tim heard a second audible voice of God during a video that was shown. “I didn’t even watch the video because I was scrolling through Facebook looking for the original post.” At this point, Tim knew he had to do something.
He was able to get the contact info to the person needing the kidney, claiming it was probably one of the strangest calls he’s ever made. “The lady on the other end of the phone started bawling and asked the big question, ‘why would you do that?’ The only answer I had and still the only answer to this day is that God told me to.”
When Tim called the hospital, the first question they asked was about his weight. “Well, I weighed about 250 and the threshold for kidney donation is about 245. I realized that I had not stewarded my body to be obedient to what God was asking me to do. I associated generosity through stuff, and not my own physical being. I really had a moment of strong conviction that led me to start riding my bike to be in shape enough that I could actually be obedient to what God had called me to.”
He decided to go out for a bike ride and wasn’t going to stop until he could pass the first test. Tim quickly lost a significant amount of weight and was able to go to the appointment in October. At that first appointment, everything looked great and Tim was a match.
“I got the opportunity to let her know that my kidney was a match. She lost it again. In the middle of trying to catch her words and breath, she asked where I lived. I told her that I lived in south Tyler,” Tim said.
Come to find out, they lived five houses apart. A coincidence? Clearly not because this is God’s story.
Naturally, Tim and his family have experienced some fear in this process. Tim’s son, Jackson, has ulcerative colitis and one of the questions that came up was “what if Jackson needed a kidney down the road?”
Tim said, “you know I can’t live in my life of fear of that. Just like God is using me to provide for this stranger, He will do that for my son if that is ever needed.”
Tim believes that part of this story has nothing to do with donating a kidney but pointing back to the Gospel.
“If others come to know Christ as a result of my donating a kidney, that could totally be what this story is about. The fact that I am giving a kidney just could be a piece of the story.”
This is what Generosity Tyler is all about; people being encouraged to do generous acts that only point back to a relationship with the Lord and that God gets put on display and gets all the glory.
Next week, we will share the second part of this story.
