What’s in Your Free Box?
Two weeks ago, I decided to have a garage sale. As I was sorting, I assigned a “Free” box. Anything I didn’t think would sell got thrown in to the box. A pair of old slippers that still had some use in them. Free! A book torn and tattered. Free! Have you ever taken anything out of these boxes? I always look, and I think I’ve taken two or three items in my whole life. Why? It’s always junk. Everything that has value we stick a price on and try to get money out of it.
Before the garage sale, I put my book Toxic for free on Kindle. Any author out there knows this is a hard decision to make because it’s something you’ve worked on for years and something you hope will make some profit. As I watched the number of downloads increase, I found it an exciting and thrilling experience.
I gave away over 3,500! Copies were downloaded in the United States, England, Germany, France, and Italy!
This has caused me to do two things:
First, it has spurred me to begin furiously working on the sequel to Toxic. To date, I have about 5,400 copies of Toxic in the hands of readers. Hopefully, a lot of them are going to want to continue the story.
Secondly, I am more aware of my generosity. After two days of giving away Toxic, I find myself at my best month for sales!
If you have been reading my blog, you know I did a give-away in June and reported that it was my best month ever. July is blowing June out of the water! Two weeks later, my sales are continuing and at one point, Toxic was #18 in on Kindle’s list for Religious Fiction in the Science Fiction & Fantasy category! Not only that, but people are writing me and saying really nice things about Toxic. I am so blessed and excited.
And why should this surprise us? Luke 6:38 says “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
In other words, give away junk and receive junk back. At the end of the garage sale, I lugged 99% of the junk in my Free Box to the garbage. No one came back after the garage sale and asked to buy more. No one said “Hey, that was a GREAT free box! Thanks for sharing it!” But I shouldn’t expect anything more when I give away junk.
But there is so much joy in giving when you give something of value. The joy of the receiver bounces back and overflows until it sweeps you off your feet.
What is one thing of value you gave away, and what was the result? What do you think this world look like if everyone took just one thing of value and gave it away for free? 
