Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Extravagant Generosity
What I mean is this: the one who sows a small number of seeds will also reap a small crop, and the one who sows a generous amount of seeds will also reap a generous crop.
Everyone should give whatever they have decided in their heart. They shouldn’t give with hesitation or because of pressure. God loves a cheerful giver.
God has the power to provide you with more than enough of every kind of grace. That way, you will have everything you need always and in everything to provide more than enough for every kind of good work.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (CEB)
Love is mentioned 714 times in the Bible. Giving or possessions , however, is mentioned 2,172 times. Scripture tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. But the truth of that statement was never more obvious to me than when I read the book The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede.
It is an award winning account of 6,595 refugees from the sky stranded in Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001. An order to clear the sky of all aircraft after the attack on the Towers resulted in 38 Jumbo Jets landing in Gander, up until that time known as simply a stopover to refuel planes heading somewhere else.
Gander was a working class community of 16,000 people whose devotion to each other was paramount. They displayed selfless acts of kindness to each other, and as soon as it was determined what was about to occur in their small town, they stopped everything to help the people about to land. The organizational aspects of housing, feeding and caring for 6,000 people were monumental, but the townspeople attacked this with no expectation of gaining anything. They took as many people as possible into their homes to shower, sleep and eat. They spent three to four sleepless nights cooking so that 6,000 people were well fed and wanting for nothing. They welcomed complete strangers into their cars, their homes and their lives and refused payment for any of it.
This was a story of humanity at its finest. It was a place where no cry for help wasn’t addressed and no one struggled alone. This was extravagant generosity, the type of giving Christians might call sacrificial giving. Sacrificial giving is when we go without so someone else can benefit. “Generosity spills out of the heart, not the pocketbook. Generosity is the disciple’s natural response to God’s unconditional love revealed in the ministry of Jesus Christ. How extravagant do we want to become? There is a mustard seed planted in each of us. It’s up to each of us individually to decide how big we want that tree to grow.”
Heavenly Father, all that we have is a gift from you. Help us to share Your generosity.
In Your name. Amen
Barbara Schneider