Archives by: Gary Hoag

“As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say: “There’s not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency,” or “There’s not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I’d better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it” or “There’s not enough love to give to everybody, so I’d better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me.”   This is a scarcity mentality.  It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won’t have enough to survive. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.

The opposite of a scarcity mentality is an abundance mentality. With an abundance mentality we say:  “There is enough for everyone, more than enough:  food, knowledge, love … everything.”  With this mind-set we give away whatever we have, to whomever we meet. When we see hungry people we give them food. When we meet ignorant people we share our knowledge; when we encounter people in need of love, we offer them friendship and affection and hospitality and introduce them to our family and friends. When we live with this mind-set, we will see the miracle that what we give away multiplies: food, knowledge, love…everything. There will even be many leftovers.”

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in Henri Nouwen Society: Daily Meditation from 6-7 May 2012.

“We are to invoke God alone in every need, and yet this does not exclude our requesting the help of others. For it is God who has conferred on them their ability to help and has appointed them “ministers” of his beneficence. Whatever benefit we receive from others we should regard as coming from God, who alone bestows every benefit through their “ministry.”

Then comes the interesting question (Q. 237): “But should we not be grateful to other people when they perform some service for us?”

Answer: “Of course we should, precisely because God honors them by channeling through their hands the good things that flow to us from the inexhaustible fountain of his generosity. In this way he puts us in their debt, and he wants us to acknowledge it. Anyone, therefore, who does not show gratitude to other people betrays ingratitude to God as well.”

B.A. Gerrish in Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2002) 44-45.

“God is a god of abundance, not a god of scarcity. Jesus reveals to us God’s abundance when he offers so much bread to the people that there are twelve large baskets with leftover scraps (see John 6:5-15), and when he makes his disciples catch so many fish that their boat nearly sinks (Luke 5:1-7). God doesn’t give us just enough. God gives us more than enough: more bread and fish than we can eat, more love than we dared to ask for.”

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in Henri Nouwen Society: Daily Meditation on 5 May 2012.

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9

“His command [in Luke 16:9] is not that you should yield to a request or wait to be pestered, but that you should personally seek out men whom you may benefit, men who are worthy disciples of the Saviour. Now the Apostle’s saying is also good, “God loveth a cheerful giver,” one who takes pleasure in giving and sows not sparingly, for fear he should reap sparingly, but shares his goods without murmurings or disputes or annoyance. This is sincere kindness. Better than this is that which is said by the Lord another place; “Give to everyone that asketh thee;” for such generosity is truly of God. But more divine than all is this saying, that we should not even wait to be asked, but should personally seek after whoever is worthy of help, and then fix the exceedingly great reward of our sharing, an eternal habitation.”

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) in Who is the Rich Man Who is Being Saved? 31.2 LCL 337.

“Everything that is, is freely given by the God of love. All is grace. Light and water, shelter and food, work and free time, children, parents and grandparents, birth and death–it is all given to us. Why? So that we can say gracias, thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and everyone.”

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in Gracias! (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983) 187.

“Our sense of entitlement steals away any chance for us to be generous. We are entitled to the money we earn. So only those who are entitled to our help receive it. How soon we forget that most jobs require able-bodied persons, that there are no guarantees to good health, and that no one owns their daily bread–all are gifts from a very generous God–something we call “grace.” Indeed, if the power to work is a gift from God, how much more the fruit of our labor.”

Rodney Reeves in Spirituality According to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ (Downers Grove: IVP, 2011) 155.

“Do not waste any part of so precious a talent merely in gratifying the desire of the eye, by superfluous and expensive apparel, or by needless ornaments. Waste no part of it in curiously adorning your houses, in superfluous and expensive furniture; in costly pictures, painting, gilding, books: in elegant (rather than useful) gardens. Let your neighbors, who know nothing better, do this.”

John Wesley (1703-1791) from “The Use of Money” 53.3, in Sermons on Several Occasions, 562-563.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:8-10

“When we give to others we are fundamentally imparting what has been entrusted to us as a gift. The more we recognize that all we have–indeed, all we are–comes from God’s goodness, the more we will be inclined to share what we have with others.

Paul’s teaching about God in these verses inculcates two virtues: gratitude for the many ways we have been blessed, and trust in God to continue to provide us with what we need and what he wants us to share with others.”

Thomas Stegman, S.J. in Second Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), note on 9:8-10.

“When our lives are shaped by gratitude, we’re more likely to notice the goodness and beauty in everyday things. We are content; we feel blessed and are eager to confer blessing…

Our capacity for gratitude is not connected with an abundance of resources but rather with a capacity to notice what it is that we do have…

Today it is often countercultural to take the posture of a grateful recipient. Some of us operate with a well-developed sense of entitlement, quite certain that we deserve good things and are entitled to the best that “life” has to offer. Others of us, because we work hard, are convinced that we have earned the good that has come to us…

If we think that we deserve the gifts and blessings we have received, it is easy for us to become greedy for more benefits and to overlook the needs of others.”

Christine Pohl in Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012) 22-28.

“Be thankful for the least benefit and thou shalt be worthy to receive greater. Let the least be unto thee even as the greatest, and let that which of little account be unto thee as a special gift. If the majesty of the Giver be considered, nothing that is given shall seem small and of no worth, for that is not a small thing which is given by the Most High God.”

Thomas à Kempis The Imitation of Christ 10.5.