More blessed to Give

More blessed to Give

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself : ‘It is more blessed to give than to
receive ( Acts 20:35)

When we are not sure of our financial state our default response is to take care of ourselves and our own first. When prices keep rising and the recession deepens it is easy to hold on more firmly to what we have. The call to be generous challenges that default response and urges us to be different and make a difference. However, we do not get to generosity in one giant leap, we get there by taking small steps. When we are faithful to God, it is more likely that we would develop a generous heart. The more you practice generosity, the more generous you become.

The idea of generosity should not intimidate us. There is good in each of us. Giving is somewhat natural and normal. God has already installed in our hearts the grace of compassion and love for others. Unless we have become totally insensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and completely indifferent to the needs of others, we want to give.

There are many ways to be generous: We may begin by doing small deeds of kindness to
others. We may venture into the hidden pockets of poverty in our community and do something that makes a difference. Right here at our church there are many opportunities to be generous with our resources of time, talents, and money. We and our community would survive these hard times if we all do our part through giving and serving.

Generosity is a fruitful virtue, the generous are rewarded. Any act of kindness would warm your heart and lift your spirit. There is a wonderful mythical law of nature which teaches that the three things we crave most in life – happiness, freedom, and peace of mind – are always attained by giving them to someone else. Generous people would say: If you always give you would always have. The more you give, the more you get in return.

In their book, Healthy Pleasures, psychologist Robert Ornstein and physician David Sobel
examined the health effects of altruism. They spoke about the “helper’s high,” a kind of euphoria volunteers get when helping others—a warm glow in the chest and a sense of vitality that comes from being simultaneously energized and calm. They said that this sense of delight may be compared to a runner’s high and claim it is caused by the body’s release of endorphins. Generosity is good for the giver. It is more blessed to give than receive.

The model of generosity for our giving is the Lord himself: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich ( 2 Corinthians 8:9). He freely choose poverty so that we may
become rich. Should we think that generosity is an impossible ideal, St. Paul tells us about the generous giving of the poor churches in Macedonia: they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us ( 2 Corinthians 8:4-6). God loves the cheerful giver. The generosity that honors the Lord is that which joyously flows from the grateful heart.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

How may I be generous today ?

Have you ever felt the joy of giving?

Do you know an unhappy person who is also generous?