Generosity

Greetings all! Here are some thoughts ...

I was having a daydream - one of the best sort. I imagined just what a wonderful person I would be, if only I found a treasure chest (or inherited an astonishing amount or just became incredibly successful). As a consequence, I would have millions and billions to throw around, proving to the world what a great, noble, and generally pleasant person I am.

My plan I daydreamed was something like this: I would pop all my hard-earned treasure in the bank, use the interest as my living allowance (cos you don't REALLY need a whole lot to live on, if you don't waste it on rubbish), and then - my crowning glory - I would give away huge amounts of money. I would be generous! Charitable! Love-filled and blessing the world!

What a wonderful man I am. Or would be, if only I won the Lottery.

And so I realised the truth: I'm not really great, noble and generally pleasant; I am a hypocrite. When I write it down like this it seems so obvious, but I realised that being generous when it doesn't cost me is not generosity at all. Where is my integrity?

This is the process I am in at the moment. I may never end up being super-crazy-wealthy or anything, and that's okay, cos generosity should never be based on affluence, should it? (check out the Widow's Offering in Mark 12:41-44). As I thought about it, I realised that it's not even about money - often the most generous thing to give is not our cash but our energy, our work, our quality time. Sometimes giving money - being 'charitable' - is actually the easy way out, with very little real cost involved.

So this is me. I'm trying to learn to be generous - in lots of different ways - now. To have it as part of my character. Generous people in the past have often been called 'philanthropists', and I love that word - philanthropist (in Greek) literally means 'lover of people'. That's what I want to be.


BIBLE PASSAGES TO LOOK AT:
- James 1:17
- John 3:16
- Acts 20:36
- 2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Got Artisan?

Artisan Initiatives has a great resource, which I've been enjoying, by reading online.

They write,

"Every quarter we grapple with an issue relating to being a Christian involved in Media Arts and Entertainment and up to now we have looked at the issues of Ambition, Rejection, Image, Money, Sexuality, Touring, Success, The Bible, and Jesus... If you would like to subscribe to cover the costs of having the publication delivered to you we would be very grateful - this functionality will be available soon. In the meantime, register on the site so we have your address for the next publication mailout."

You can subscribe to their magazine on artisaninitiatives.org

blessings,

davita at bpn