Devotion for November 17, 2020, by Pastor Tim Huff of Holy Trinity:
THE MORE WE GIVE
Recently I was going through boxes of books and in between pages I found a meaningful quote. I do not know where or when it was said, but I believe it is relevant today.
We are living in a time of …
Taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
higher incomes, but lower morals;
more knowledge, but less wisdom;
fancier houses, but broken homes;
We have …
conquered outer-space, but not inner-space;
learned to make a living, but not a life;
add years to our life, but not life to our years.
We …
spend too recklessly;
drive too fast;
laugh too little;
anger too quickly;
stay up too late;
get up too tired;
read too little;
watch TV too much;
pray too seldom.
While all of the above might not be true of some of us, some of the above might well be true of all of us. That we are caught in the cogs of life, which is grinding us down.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
John 13:34
Christ’s “New commandment” is not simply a command that we love one another. It is a command that we love one another in a very special way. We are called upon to be Christlike; to love one another as Jesus has loved us.
To be Christlike is to minister to others where they are right now, right at the heart of their humanity; in their crying and in their laughing, in their hurting and in their rejoicing, in their good moments and in their heavy crisis moments.
To be Christlike is to convince others — all others without exception — that we believe in them because God believes in them; that we are for them because God is for them; that we are with them because God is with them; that we love them because God loves them.
To be Christlike is to be a living sign of God’s supreme Gift to the world — the Gift that keeps on giving!
And when we discover this secret, no longer do we regard doing for others as a reluctant duty — like paying taxes or picking seeds out of a watermelon. Free and spontaneous giving is the means of our life enrichment.
Many of us seem slow to learn that only when we have opened ourselves up to others can we experience God’s life flowing through our beings; that only by being attentive to others’ needs can our own deep-felt needs be served.
Can we, deep within ourselves, say “Yes! The gift of God’s Love is so good for me, so life-enhancing for me, that I will put every part of my being, my whole self, into my response. I will let the Christ Spirit of God baptize my time, my skills, my feelings, my mind, my body and soul, as I offer them to God in the service of others.”
Can we say it, and mean it?
The Truth — the Gospel Truth — is that one cannot give without receiving in abundance — to overflowing! The supply of God’s Grace that the Christ Spirit brings into our lives is never exhausted. The living waters of God’s gift of love never cease to flow, never run dry.
May we live lives free of the cogs,
Pastor Tim