Generosity

Part 1: Love love

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about how I feared that those of us who write about Christian money matters all too often focus on the “shoulds” or the “oughts”. That we provoke and admonish others to give more, when instead, we should perhaps spend more time inviting people along with us on a journey to a better way. I hope to remedy that in the coming months. And I hope you’ll join me in that journey.

It will be a three-month trek. One that I expect will lead to greater generosity, but that’s not really my goal. My goal is much more important than that. I hope and pray that it will lead to a desire to be more generous. 

Do you see the distinction there? It’s an important one. Jesus came to change hearts, not behaviour. I think that’s a good lead to follow. Yes – one can expect behaviour to ultimately change if one’s heart has changed, but the true goal is the heart change, not the behaviour change.

It’s been my experience that when there is a focus on behaviour, that’s when we start laying down guilt trips or brow beating people into the ‘proper behaviour’. But sadly, that often hardens hearts rather than softens them. Maybe there is a proper time to brow beat and guilt trip. I don’t know. I guess Jesus even did it sometimes. But certainly, they should not be the norm. 

Over the next three months I will share and expound on three truths that I hope we can all deeply internalize:

1. God deeply desires that we “Love Love”
2. Love leads generosity
3. Generosity leads joy.

And I hope to do so in a way that will invite us all to participate in the joy of giving rather than admonishing us for our poor behavior. Please feel free to email me and let me know how I’m doing.

Let me start by asking you two questions:

1. What’s the greatest commandment?
2. If you could only fill in the following blank with one word, what word would that be?  God is _____________.            

My bet is that for the first question, your head immediately went (as one would expect) to Jesus’ response when asked that same question:

 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In short: Love God and Love Others.

I’m also betting that for the second one, many of you answered “love.” It’s interesting to me that the phrase “God is Love” is only specifically stated in 1^st John, and only once, but the principle that God is Love can be found throughout both testaments.

If the most important thing that we can do is to Love God, and if God is Love, then maybe a nonreligious way of putting the greatest commandment is that we should Love Love.

Someone once told me that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”. That sounds cool, but unless you know what the “main thing” really is, then it’s just circular nonsense. God tells us over and over and over again that the main thing is Love. “If I give all I possess to the poor… but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

That’s my simple encouragement for you today: Love Love. 

So, what does this have to do with generosity? Well, everything it turns out. Because Love leads generosity. More on that in the coming months, but for this month, when you wake up in the morning, ask yourself: do I have a loving heart? When you go to work, ask yourself, do I love these co-workers? When you go to church on Sunday, ask: do I love God’s church? If the answer to any of those isn’t a resounding yes, then work on that.

The generosity will follow.

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

• 1 John 4: 8 (NIV)

Arnold Machel lives, works, and worships in the White Rock/South Surrey area. He holds the Certified Financial Planner® designation, is the Founder of Visionvest Financial Planning & Services, and sits on the board of Abundance Canada. Visionvest (his firm) has been voted Best Investment/Financial Advisor by Peace Arch News readers for the past three years in a row.

Questions and comments can be directed to him at dr.rrsp@visionvest.ca. Please note that all comments are of a general nature and should not be relied upon as individual advice. While every attempt is made to ensure accuracy, facts and figures are not guaranteed.