What does it mean to be generous? Random House dictionary offers us some clarity. 1) readiness in liberality or giving. 2) freedom from meanness or smallness of mind or character. But in reality, what is this? How do we practice it? Why do we practice it? How much is too much?
Well here is what today’s rat race has told me: “Do you. Look out for yourself. Get yours. Help others, but don’t inconvenience yourself; it’s not your problem.” Well. I’m callin BS. This overly simplified, horrendously selfish mode of living is empty and deteriorating to the soul.
“The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.” -Corrie Ten Boom
Instead of considering the inconvenience to our own comfort and luxury, let’s rather explore the value in the person standing in front of us. At the end of the day, you can weight the scale with all of your possessions, treasures, and time but it will never outweigh one human soul.
So how do we conduct ourselves in a way that upholds this dignity? Generosity. We GIVE. I posed a few questions in regards to this generosity, this giving. I’ll briefly let the teacher in me take over and break it down into the 6 question words: who, what, when, where, why, and how?
Who?
Simply put, the answer is everyone. There is not a single soul on this earth not in need or not deserving of generosity. From the homeless woman you see as you walk around shopping to the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company; the child lives in a foster home and the child in your standard middle class suburb. Just because they need different things doesn’t mean that they don’t NEED. And these needs are rarely things we can attain of our own volition which brings us to…
What?
Most often we consider a gift to be monetary and material donations. While these things are important and necessary, it in no way covers the expanse of generosity. People need our time, our patience, our attention… We might find these things to be arbitrary but to some they are more precious than every dime you fill their pockets with. Give YOURSELF to people. Hidden inside our personalities and day-to-day tasks are a million different gifts to give someone: the benefit of the doubt, a cup of coffee, a 5 minute conversation, compassionate honesty (Let’s be real, the word brutal has never been positive. Sticking honesty on the end of it doesn’t change that), eye contact, asking someone their name and remembering it. All these opportunities fly by us in the monotony of our everyday lives, unintentionally depriving those around of their most basic need: to be treated like a human.
When?
Always. This one is pretty straightforward. Not just Sundays or when we are explicitly asked to volunteer. Our total, unfettered giving should be interwoven into the natural flow of our day.
Where?
So many opportunities to be generous go unseen. They get lost in the day-to-day shuffle as we keep our heads down and just try to get ourselves through the day. If we open our eyes just a little wider and we’ll see moments at home, at work, at school, and at church. But if we live fully awake then we experience a startling realization when we look around to find the elderly woman at the grocery store who just wants to talk about her grandkids, the person crying as they pump their gas that doesn’t need to talk about it but they need someone to notice that they’re not okay, the child that slams into your legs running down the sidewalk that needs a little patience and understanding, the other people driving in traffic going either too fast or too slow that need you to give them the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming that they’re all conspiring together to make this the worst commute home yet. The chances are everywhere, it’s just a matter of taking them.
Why?
“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” 1 John 3:17
Jesus gave everything. Why should we give any less? Because it’s hard? Because it’s scary? Because we’re worried about the cost? Consider the value of a human soul as discussed earlier, that immeasurable worth demands action. Something so great, valuable, and priceless requires the utmost respect and care.
When we preserve artwork there are temperature-controlled lockers, specialized display cases, motion detectors, security guards, and hours of painstaking restoration. Imagine that we paid half the care we give to the Mona Lisa to the people around us; what would be different? Imagine that we remembered to see people as people, an elementary fact that is so easily forgotten.
How/ How much?
“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’” Luke 21:1-4
We have all been in that place of, “I want to give but I can barely support myself.” It is not the quantity we give but the act of giving itself. The widow didn’t give an extraordinary amount but she gave what she had. That is all we can ever do. There will be times when we are tired, sick, broke, and just downright cranky. It is in these occasions when the little we give means so much more. The generosity poured out in those times requires a deliberate act of love and willing the good of the other person over whatever we might be feeling at the time. Any amount of giving is worthwhile as long as it is given purely and unreservedly.
Is there such a thing as too much? If you had asked me a few months ago you would have received an overzealous, “NEVER!” That answer would have erupted from a burned out, crumbling shell of a person. I had to face the reality that I am finite. I am not capable of infinite giving. Only God can give that and I am not Him. Being an elementary school teacher, the concept of subtraction comes to mind. We cannot take away more than we have. 15 – 30 will put you in the negative and what more good can we do when we expend ourselves to the point that we’re stuck in the red? So now we feel trapped in the push and pull of how much is too much and how much is not enough? I have found that the more we come to know ourselves, the more we are able to ascertain a balance. When we know ourselves we can tell the difference between reasons and excuses. It is ourselves that we are giving so we need to be familiar with what we are offering to people. And furthermore we need to know the One who teaches us to give. He shows us the who, what, when, where, why, and how by His life as well as the talents and opportunities present in our lives. So we need to listen. We need to hear. We need to give.
