By Dave Ram­sey

It was an un­usu­ally cold day in the tra­di­tional, small town of Hous­ton, Mis­sis­sippi. The un­usual cold was bone cold for Larry be­cause it had been a re­ally, re­ally bad year. He had been fired and evicted be­fore Christ­mas. Hard to be­lieve a hard­work­ing, reg­u­lar guy could end up so far down, so scared, so hun­gry, and so cold.

With not a cent to his name, Larry stopped in the Dixie Diner for some lunch. His plan was to act like he’d lost his wal­let and beg for mercy be­cause he sim­ply had to have some food.

Ted Horn was the owner of the Dixie Diner and a man with a big smile and an even big­ger heart. It is said that the eyes are the win­dow to the soul. As Ted struck up a con­ver­sa­tion with Larry across the lunch counter, he looked in Lar­ry’s eyes and saw a lot of pain, a lot of fear, a lot of hope­less­ness. A few min­utes later, Ted walked be­hind Lar­ry’s stool and reached down as if he was pick­ing up some­thing off the floor. He said, “Son, you must have dropped this,” and handed Larry a $20 bill.

Lit­tle did Ted know, giv­ing Larry the money to pay for lunch was a sim­ple act of kind­ness that would have an ef­fect on thou­sands of peo­ple with mil­lions of dol­lars over sev­eral decades… 

Larry Stew­art went on to make mil­lions of dol­lars in a ca­ble busi­ness and set­tled with his wife in Kansas City, Mis­souri. But he never for­got Ted or his kind­ness and gen­eros­ity. In fact, Lar­ry’s ran­dom acts of gen­eros­ity started with a sim­i­lar ges­ture—a $20 bill he gave to a carhop at a drive-in. With tears in her eyes she thanked Larry, say­ing he had no idea how much that meant to her right now . . . but he did.

Lar­ry’s ran­dom giv­ing in­creased, and he be­came known as Se­cret Santa of Kansas City. Dressed as Santa (with a po­lice body­guard), Larry would roam Kansas City look­ing for some­one who needed some help. He gave out $100 bills to the peo­ple God sent across his path, giv­ing away tens of thou­sands of dol­lars every Christ­mas to ran­dom peo­ple.

Se­cret Santa ex­panded his rounds to New Or­leans af­ter Ka­t­rina, New York City af­ter 9/​11, and other cities as the Spirit moved him. His iden­tity was kept se­cret from 1979 to 2006, all the while mak­ing peo­ple’s lives brighter with his gen­eros­ity. Larry gave mil­lions of dol­lars as Se­cret Santa.

A tabloid was plan­ning to out the iden­tity of Se­cret Santa the year Larry was di­ag­nosed with can­cer. So, he de­cided to beat them to it, steal­ing “their” story. He came on The Dave Ram­sey Show to re­veal to the world the iden­tity and the back story of this amaz­ingly gen­er­ous Se­cret Santa. He in­structed the world on how they could all be­come Se­cret San­tas. It was truly an honor to know him.

Lar­ry’s story taught me that a sim­ple, even small act of gen­eros­ity can cause more gen­eros­ity. It is the but­ter­fly ef­fect of gen­eros­ity. A but­ter­fly flaps his wings and even­tu­ally, some­where around the world a hur­ri­cane oc­curs. Ted “finds” a $20 bill un­der Lar­ry’s stool and Se­cret Santa gives mil­lions, then in­spires an un­told num­ber of more Se­cret San­tas to give. That $20 bill be­comes tens of mil­lions with the mul­ti­plier ef­fect of gen­eros­ity.

When we ex­pe­ri­ence gen­eros­ity, we can’t keep our­selves from pay­ing it for­ward. I see this time and time again, es­pe­cially as peo­ple be­come debt-free. They want to share that same hope and freedom with oth­ers. Their hearts and hands are open, so more can flow in and out.

Our hearts are per­ma­nently en­larged when some­one is gen­er­ous and kind to us in our dark­est hour. But then, that’s what God in­tended—that gen­eros­ity would change us. He’s the au­thor of the ul­ti­mate gen­eros­ity ef­fect. He sent His only Son to save us—a small baby in a manger to change the world. How can we not be trans­formed by such a gift?

We’re blessed to be a bless­ing, to bring light to a dark world. So, this sea­son I want to wag more and bark less. I want to find how many ways a $20 bill or $100 bill or more can be­come a gen­eros­ity but­ter­fly.

Hey every­one, let’s flap our wings to­gether and change this na­tion . . . this world. Ready, Set, Go!

About the au­thor: Dave Ram­sey

Dave Ram­sey is an eight-time na­tional best­sell­ing au­thor, per­sonal fi­nance ex­pert, and host of The Ram­sey Show. He has ap­peared on Good Morn­ing Amer­ica, CBS This Morn­ing, To­day, Fox News, CNN, Fox Busi­ness and many more. Since 1992, Dave has helped peo­ple take con­trol of their money, build wealth, and en­hance their lives. He also serves as CEO of the com­pany Ram­sey So­lu­tions.