Often when we speak of generosity it is often relating to money, but generosity goes way beyond money. It is an attitude of the heart, a way of relating to another person made in the image of God and treating them better than they deserve. Whilst it is true that we can be generous with our money, we can be equally generous with our words and our time. It is giving another the benefit of the doubt or assuming the best of their intensions. Now I don’t want to pretend that this is easy to do, and yet it has always been a marker of a healthy Church. Imagine a community where others went out of their way to speak highly of you, to look out for you, to assume the best even of your biggest failings. Imagine a place where you can feel free to make mistakes and be honest about your struggles. Imagine a place that built each other up, especially in the darkest times, knowing that we are equally in need of grace as well as saved by it.
Now I think we would all agree that we would like to be part of that community, but how can we make it happen? We need to do 2 things. Firstly, we need to remember God’s abundant generosity towards us. When we first met God, we were far from lovable. And yet God was abundantly generous towards us, binding up our wounds and doting on us with Fatherly affection. When we took His generosity for granted, or threw it back in His face, not only did He continue to be generous, but He went as far as to send His only Son to be crucified so we could be brought back to Him. Secondly, generosity needs to start with us. We can’t expect others to change when we are unwilling to be generous ourselves. In 2 Cor 6 the apostle Paul was pleading for the Corinthians to unify as a Church, He began by telling them that he had already “opened wide our hearts to you”. He was generous towards them, so they could open up their hearts wide to others. What will you do today to make our community more generous?
Being a more generous community
