Generosity: it’s not an optional extra! Societies are judged on their level of civilisation by how well they care for the poor and disadvantaged, in other words, the strugglers, those who live with a disability or who have fallen on hard times.
The key to all of this is generosity. Jesus spoke about the fact that the measure you give will be the measure you get back (Luke 6: 38). In other words, if you are generous, then God will be generous to you in different ways. If you are forgiving, then other people will be forgiving of you. If you are kind, then other people will be kind to you. I’ve always been struck by this teaching: if we are generous, then we will experience the generosity of others and of God.
This is an interesting phenomenon, God being generous to us, if we are generous to others. It’s not like a formula, so if you donate $20 to a worthy cause, it’s not like you will suddenly receive $20 in return – it doesn’t work like that!
BUT, what I have found in my life, is that if you are generous to others, God will truly bless you. Sometimes the blessing is simply that wonderful feeling that comes when you assist someone else. Sometimes the blessing is more tangible than that: someone else helping you out when you’re in trouble. The popular version of this is that “what goes around, comes around.” The Christian version is that God blesses us, in different ways, when we are generous to others.
The Reverend Dr Theo McCall
School Chaplain