Vacation is not a luxury, but a necessity. Many of us keep such busy schedules that it’s hard to keep track of everything and hard to keep up. Rest and doing things that feed our souls can be pushed aside in favor of those more pressing things.
As you may know, my family and I traveled to Texas to visit family. A few things happened on this trip: rest; sight-seeing; time with my mom and step-dad; time with my sister, step-sister, nieces and nephews, and Grandma B; uplifting worship, fellowship and education at my folks’ church; and a nasty bout of a stomach bug.
All of these pieces were brought together through Sunday morning at church. That may sound like a typical “pastor thing” to say, but it’s true and this is how:
- In Sunday School, we focused on the Kingdom Of God in Matthew 19:16 – 20:16. These include the conversation between Jesus and the rich man, and the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
- Worship focused on the visit of the wise men in Matthew 2:1-12
Read through these verses and look at them thinking about generosity. It seems that whenever the “g” word is brought up, it’s with the intention of asking for money. My intent here is devotional rather than fundraising.
Notice the generosity that’s already around you. Family rearranged schedules because of my stomach bug, Vicki was wonderful caring for me and visiting with family, people at church were so warm and kind, we met people who started a ministry to women who were newly released from prison, we had the time and money to take this trip, my folks were excellent hosts, I heard about the 3rd strong quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys who donated his entire check ($53,000) to the school where he had been teaching, and I could go on.
My questions as you look forward to the New Year are these: Where do you see and experience God’s generosity? What is the generosity at work around you? Where are you generous? How would you like to grow in your generosity this year?
At church, my eyes were sharpened to see the generosity that is all around us and to give thanks to God for it. Pray now and through the year about where God would lead you to be generous in whatever form that takes. Your generosity at the time may not seem like a big deal, but generosity changes people, even in simple ways like a few days ago when I pulled up to a toll booth to find that my toll had already been paid by the previous driver. At the next toll booth, I paid for the person following me.
Please share your experiences with generosity.
God bless you!
PJ
Epicurious Lutheran 