“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9:11)
We serve a generous God, who desires that His children would be rich enough in every way. God does not just bless us for our enjoyment or to only meet our needs, but also for the good of others. God’s blessings towards us are not intended to only result in our thankfulness, but to enable us to be generous. His blessings give us the ability to demonstrate God’s goodness to others and this will result in their thankfulness towards God, too.
Acts of generosity, big or small, always generate miracles of life. Generosity begets generosity and creates a circular flow of compassion and gratitude. Sharing is the true language of interdependence, and life invites us to be generous both in giving and in receiving. When we live out of a spirit of sharing, we come to know the full meaning of loving-kindness. Sharing is not to be thought of simply in material terms, for there is also the generosity of judgment, of patience, of forgiveness, of gentle presence.
It is not just receiving a gift that can make us thankful. Giving also instills gratitude in the giver. That gratitude gets translated into more generosity. It is cyclical and addictive.
Today we stand between the two major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, which really offer the soul an invitation into gratitude and giving. These two qualities relate to one another. Our faith is a lifelong expression of gratitude, and that gratitude manifests itself in the form of generosity to others. Most people think generosity begets gratitude; but in fact, it works the other way around – gratitude engenders generosity. The evidence of true thankfulness is the act of giving from the heart.
The Gospels tell us to cultivate a life of gratitude and generosity. Expressing gratitude as generosity can take many forms: words, of course, but also financial support, and action. We can be generous with our time, treasure and talent. There is another type of generosity that we can practice which is particularly appropriate in an organization such as AWESNA – and that is generosity of spirit, putting others before yourself; being nonjudgmental; projecting an air of serenity and compassion in our demeanor, and seeking to understand rather than be understood.
Let us ask God to enlarge our hearts and our imaginations that we may be thankful for what His generosity has done for us that will lead us to be generous with gentle words, with time freely given, and with kindness toward all. May we be filled with the Holy Spirit that we may learn and practice generous gratitude and grateful generosity today and every day.