“…the passage in Mark where Jesus tells the rich young ruler that if he really wants to be perfect, then he must sell everything he has and give it to the poor, whereupon what the rich young ruler does is turn on his heel and walk sorrowfully away because he has great possessions. Jesus made no attempt to hold him there, shouted no reproaches or entreaties after him, simply let him go as the parish let me go, but you feel that the look in his eye as he watched him disappearing down the road was as full of compassion for the young man himself as for the poor whom the young man could not bring himself to serve fully.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

John the Baptist said, “If you have two coats, give one away”, and  “Do the same with your food.” (Luke 3:11)

The gift of Giving is different from the gifts we have talked about so far. In the gifts of prophecy, serving, teaching, and exhortation, we are dealing with intangible gifts: seeing, teaching, encouraging and helping.  For someone who has the gift of giving, we are dealing with the tangibles of life – the “stuff” we have and our willingness to part with our “stuff”. 

The “Gifted” giver is someone who joyfully shares what they have with others, whether it is financial, material, or even personal time and attention – and they give without a need to vet the receiver. The giver is concerned always for the needs of others and always seeks opportunities to share goods, money and time with them as needs arise without expecting something in return.  The gifted giver then is someone who is not inclined to hoard or save but seeks to give away with the trust that G-d will continue to provide. 

Our innate human inclination is to gather as much stuff as we can so that we have the things we need to survive. What happens over time is that our gathering becomes hoarding, because we are always concerned with the “other shoe dropping” or the “rainy day” that will surprise us. 

Being a giver requires only the willingness to see into your abundance and continually see the way to and the willingness to meet the needs of others.

Pastor Dave