Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes. Romans 11:33-36 (The Message)
“Giving helps us become what God wants us to be…Through the practice of radical hospitality, we receive God and invite God’s love into our lives. By practicing passionate worship we love God in return; God shapes our hearts and minds as we begin to see the world through God’s eyes. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit in our own spiritual growth as we practice intentional faith development. God calls us to make a difference in the lives of others, and we practice risk-taking mission and service. And at some point in our following of Christ, we realize that all we are comes from God and belongs to God; this leads us to the practice of extravagant generosity…
God uses our practice of giving to reconfigure our interior life. By giving, we craft a different inner desire as the driving element of life. Our motivations change. Giving moderates the powerful and sometimes destructively insatiable drive for acquisition. In the daily interior struggle fostered by a consumeristic, materialistic society that pressures us to pursue many things that do not lead to real happiness, the practice of giving aims us at what ultimately satisfies. Giving sanctifies and deepens the struggle, and constantly resets the internal compass in the right direction. Generosity becomes a tool God uses to draw us closer to God and to align us more closely with God’s desire for us…”
Robert Schnase in chapter five of Five Practices of Fruitful Living (Nashville: Abingdon, 2010).
At the time this meditation posts, I will be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean en route home from New Zealand. This holiday has helped me realize that God’s generosity is more extravagant than I could ever imagine. To see the world through God’s eyes requires a constant reconfiguring of our interior lives. Practicing generosity puts us on the path of growth. It moves us toward mission and service, the things that satisfy. I am thankful for this time with my family and for the opportunity to recalibrate the compass of my life to Christ.
Want your life reconfigured? Focus on God’s love and generosity toward you. Attune to all the things He does for you daily. If you need a holiday to do this, then schedule some time off. I will testify that you won’t be the same afterwards.