Have you heard me tell this story? A church was conducting its annual pledge drive with an every-member-canvas. Members visited other members to ask for their financial commitments. A visitor went to the home of one of the church’s wealthiest members.

The member said to the visitor, “I guess you think that I ought to be able to give $50,000 to the church, because I’m a successful businessman. You can tell by the way I live. I’m affluent, a man of means. But I bet there are some things you don’t know. Do you know that my mother is in a very expensive nursing home? That my brother is disabled and unemployed? That my son is a missionary and can hardly support his family? And that I have a grandchild who must have costly medication?

The visitor responded, “No, I had no idea.” The man replie…