Wednesday, 27 November, 2002

The focus of today's devotion is on a portion of the second Lesson for the Day of Thanksgiving: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15



The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God love a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (vs..6-8)



I like to hear this as an invitation to be conduits of God's many gifts bestowed upon God's people. In that way, we are all conduits...we all have something to share with others. We are not the end of the line where things and gifts pile up for our own use or mere storage. We are given much and invited to share much. I do not need to hear reward and punishment in this lesson. There is no "payback" system so that we will give in order to get what we want or to be given more and more. It is vital for us to consider what is enough. The amount of our material possessions and the gold we can wrap around our necks or the cars we are able to drive say little about the wealth we have in this God of ours who loves us and will abide with us no matter what we "have." It would be good for us to be prayerful about what is enough and what can be released from our control and possession and handed on to others so that they too might have the opportunity to gift others. The gifting and the sharing never stops. All of us...in any of our situations can be "cheerful givers" even as our gifts may vary greatly. We have been blessed and we stand within the blessed position of being a blessing to others.



Connection: It is not easy to consider what is enough for our lives. The temptation is always to have more...biggy size life...store up good things...hold off with sharing until we are absolutely sure we have enough (which is often never). Today is another day to share abundantly of the enough that is given to us.



Lord of All Good Things, you hand over to us the world and all of its resources. Though we each hold so little, you inspire us to make much of the little we have by blessing us with the opportunity to share with others and thus, create a community of loving compassion and care. Praise be to you. Amen