Why are some people spontaneously generous, while for others generosity seems so difficult?
Generosity may not feel like a natural response to life. So often we feel there is not enough to go around. Experience seems to suggest that life is defined by lack. When we feel that the resources of life are inadequate, generosity is difficult. It is tempting to hold tightly to what little we feel we have.
Clinging is so easy. We have learned over time to be pinched. We want to protect our resources. We want to make sure we have enough before we feel free to give. A wealthy man was asked, “How much money is enough money?” He replied, “Just a little bit more.”
As long as we think we must first accumulate enough to satisfy all our wants, needs and desires, we will never feel we have enough to start giving. It is the nature of wants, needs and desires to grow just beyond each threshold we achieve. When we finally get two, we suddenly need three. Then three is no longer adequate; we have to have four. When we try to fill an inner void by acquiring we will never have enough to fill the empty space.
Ironically, the more we cling, the less we experience the abundance that sets us free to share.
Jesus said,
give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38)
There is a direct connection between our ability to experience abundance and our willingness to share. Only as we open to the fullness of life, will we find the freedom to give. Giving opens us to an experience of that abundance from which generosity flows. As we give we discover there is enough.
How do we enter this giving circle?
At some point, we must experience grace. We must trust, even if only in the tiniest degree, that life is a gift. Every breath we breathe is a gift; the beating of our heart is a gift; the blood that runs through our veins is a gift. Every person who enters our life, every life form with which we share this planet, is all gift. We did not create ourselves, did not bring ourselves into being. We do not keep ourselves alive. Every moment is pure gift.
We need to allow an awareness of the bounty of life to enter our being. We need to open our hearts just the smallest crack to see how blessed we are. Jesus said if we,
have faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20),
it would be enough. As we use it, it will grow.
As we open to grace, we discover the ability to give in response. The moment we choose to share, we experience a little more of the fullness that is our true nature.
We are created in the image of God. God is the absolute fullness of life and love that is the energy behind the universe. God is ever-flowing abundance. That abundance is our true nature, our true identity, and our destiny as God’s creatures.
There is enough to go around. It is never a question of adequate resources. It is only a question of adequate willingness. We are blessed. As we share our blessings, we know the fullness of God’s grace more deeply and richly in our hearts. This is the giving circle. It is the circle of love and it never stops; it never runs out. The giving circle never fails.
Christopher Page is the rector of St. Philip Anglican Church in Oak Bay, and the Archdeacon of Tolmie in the Anglican Diocese of B.C. He writes regularly on his blog www.inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com
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