4 posts tagged “generosity”
Philippians 4 is probably my favorite chapter in the Bible. To read it in The Message enriches its truths in profound ways to me. Enjoy these excepts: Stay on track, steady in God. Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity. Don't you want to stop and ponder through each of these? All positive, except one. Against steadily staying on track, celebrating God, thinking wholesomely, experiencing generosity is "don't fret or worry". Worry gets us off track, kills our celebratory attitude, refocuses our thoughts and promotes what we don't have while blinding us to what we do have. Joy is a choice that we make continually throughout each day. Choose joy today and put worry where it belongs - completely away.
The Bible is so practical! Today, I read Romans 12 (The Message). Toward the end of the chapter are these words: Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. ...inventive in hospitality - I love that because our world is filled with people who are: To these real people comes the words, "...be inventive with hospitality." Today, I received this email from Chuck Swindoll which says it beautifully! Read it thoughtfully and prayerfully and ask the Lord to show you how to be inventive with hospitality. The Hawaiian word Ho'okipa connects hospitality with generosity. Both require giving of one's self. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ US AND WE, NOT I AND ME by Charles R. Swindoll Nobody is a whole chain. Each one is a link. But take away one link and the chain is broken. Nobody is a whole team. Each one is a player. But take away one player and the game is forfeited. Nobody is a whole orchestra. Each one is a musician. But take away one musician and the symphony is incomplete. We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands, we’re not. To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive. And reach out and embrace. And release and rely. Especially in the God family . . . where working together is Plan A for survival. And since we’re so different (thanks to the way God built us), love and acceptance are not optional luxuries. Neither is tolerance. Or understanding. Or patience. You know, all those things you need from others when your humanity crowds out your divinity. In other words: Love each other with brotherly affection and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy in your work but serve the Lord enthusiastically. Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and prayerful always. When God’s children are in need, you be the one to help them out. And get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner or, if they need lodging, for the night. (Rom. 12:10-13, TLB) Why? Because each one of us is worth it. Even when we don’t act like it or feel like it or deserve it. Since none of us is a whole, independent, self-sufficient, supercapable, all-powerful hotshot, let’s quit acting like we are. Life’s lonely enough without our playing that silly role. The game’s over. Let’s link up. "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent . . . " (John Donne). Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, Day by Day with Charles Swindoll (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Ho'okipa initiates when it is absent or withheld; and it reciprocates when received. What a blessing for a person who desperately needs gracious hospitality and generosity to find it in us. True Ho'okipa does not wait for it to be given, thus making it solely reciprocal. It seeks ways to initiate itself against all that is withdrawn and protective. Of the giving the heart, C. S. Lewis writes: Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. Sincerely showing hospitality and generosity is to be vulnerable, too, but that is what Ho'okipa means.
"Wealth, thought the people old, is found not so much in your possessions, but in the ability to give generously of what you possess… The primacy of giving is best shown by two of the most important values in Hawaiian and other Polynesian societies, namely generosity, or lokomaika‘i, and hospitality, or ho‘okipa. The essential nature of both is the liberal giving of what you have. Such an act of generosity deserves the name lokomaika‘i, which means good heart." —Dr. George Hu‘eu Sanford Kanahele, scholar and historian, and author of Ku Kanaka, Stand Tall, A Search for Hawaiian Values
