Grateful for Generosity in Times of Challenge

Grateful for Generosity in Times of Challenge

Generosity and Gratitude

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Look for the helpers. There’s always someone helping.
- Fred Rogers

Life inevitably brings challenges, losses, and difficult seasons. During these times, we often discover dimensions of human generosity that we never could have imagined. It is remarkable how crisis and hardship can bring out the best in people, inspiring acts of kindness and generosity that help to restore our faith in humanity.

Consider how communities respond to natural disasters. Neighbors who barely know each other become lifelines for one another. Strangers travel great distances to help with relief efforts. Churches, organizations, and individuals donate time, money, and resources to help those in need. In the midst of destruction and loss, we witness the beautiful resilience of human generosity.

The same pattern appears in personal crises. When someone faces a serious medical diagnosis, friends and family often rally in amazing ways. Meals are prepared, children are cared for, rides are provided, and emotional support is offered. These acts of generosity become sources of deep gratitude that can sustain us through our darkest hours.

Being grateful for generosity received during challenging times doesn’t mean we are thankful for the difficulties themselves. Instead, we are grateful for the ways that people show up for us when we need them most. This gratitude often inspires us to be more generous when others face their own challenges.

Daily Gratitude Practice: List three people or experiences that showed you generosity during a difficult time in your life.

A Spirit of Giving

A Spirit of Giving

Generosity and Gratitude

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
- 2 Corinthians 9:7

Money is often a topic that many people find difficult to discuss. One person who did not find money hard to talk about was Jesus. He often taught about this topic, reminding us that where our treasure is, there also will be our heart (Matthew 6:21).

The apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy that “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Note that he did not say that money is the root of all evil. Money is neutral. What we do with money and what kind of attachment we have to it can be a faithful expression of Jesus’ teachings—or not.

At its heart, when we share our money with others, we express our deepest values. To give financially says that we believe in what we are giving to. When we give to strangers, to someone who is struggling, to our church, to a friend or family member in need, to a community effort, or to a cause we are passionate about, we express our care and our desire to help others thrive. We are saying we believe in them and we are expressing our love and God’s love through our giving.

As the verse at the top of this reflection reminds us, we want our giving to be motivated by joy and by our love both for God and our neighbor. God values a sincere and cheerful giver more than one motivated by guilt or duty. Financial generosity is one way we practice generosity—making thoughtful, intentional decisions about how we organize and use our resources.

Daily Gratitude Practice: As an expression of gratitude related to financial generosity, list three experiences where you have had the honor to either give or receive generosity in the form of money.

Generosity and Gratitude

Generosity and Gratitude

Theme for Week Two

Reflection By Scott Stoner

In practicing gratitude, we find those things that we truly love and those things that sustain us.
- Shannon Kelly

Shannon Kelly introduced us to the relationship between generosity and gratitude, a connection we will explore in depth as our focus for this week. We will provide specific prompts each day this week to help you follow Shannon’s invitation to bring to mind, and perhaps write down, three things that you are grateful for that day.

One way that generosity and gratitude are similar is that, ideally, they are both attitudes that we cultivate, not just specific actions. When we describe someone as a generous or grateful person, we are speaking of more than the good deeds they have done. We are speaking of a mindset they have, a way they have of seeing and being in the world.

When parents encourage children to share with others, they hope that through such actions, their children will grow up to be people with generous hearts, and that generosity will become a core value for them. Similarly, when we practice gratitude regularly, we are cultivating a way of seeing that recognizes blessing and gift, even in ordinary moments.

Gratitude and generosity feed each other. The more grateful we become, the more generous we tend to be. And the more generous we are, the more reasons we find to be grateful. This creates a beautiful cycle of blessing that enriches both our own lives and the lives of others.

Daily Gratitude Practice: List three people or experiences from your childhood that you are grateful for because they modeled the core value of generosity.

Preparing the Way with Gratitude

Preparing the Way with Gratitude

The Second Sunday of Advent

Reflection By The Rev. Shannon Kelly

O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; for their steadfast love endures for ever.
- Psalm 107:1

Advent is a time of preparation and our reading today is a call to just that. A call to let go of the past and lean toward a future that is yet unseen. John the Baptist, a prophet and truth-teller, is calling people to “Prepare the way of the Lord.” How does one prepare for the coming of Christ? We prepare by readying our hearts, souls, and minds to receive Christ and in this act, we are opening ourselves to new possibilities, new thinking, new living.

I find gratitude to be an extremely useful tool in preparing myself for anything because it reminds me of what I have, the experiences that shape me, and the love that surrounds me. Each day, at the end of the day, I write down three things for which I am grateful. (Sometimes a few more if I can’t narrow it down to only three.) They can be simple things like dinner and games with my family, finishing a project, or watching the sunset as I walk my dog. Or they can be big things like when a loved one reaches a goal, a new job, a birth, a wedding, or adoption. Truth be told, there are also days when I struggle to come up with one, let alone three, and on these days when I dig deep to find what seem like small and insignificant things to be thankful for, I realize that no matter how bad my day, there are always at least three things that made my life better. And when I do that, it completely reframes the day. I also have discovered that there is a close link between how grateful I am and how generous with others I am able to be. It is in giving gratitude for the day that is past that I’m able to more fully prepare and embrace the next day, being more generous both with myself and with others.

Melody Beatie wrote, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Naming our gratitude for what may seem like small things in our lives often allows the big stressors to melt away, even for a moment. Sometimes, it is in giving thanks that we are able to live in the moment, to let go of the anxiety, to leave behind the “what if’s,” and truly prepare the way for God to come into our lives in the most unexpected and generous ways.

Our world is a challenging place right now, one that can consume us if we let it. Finding our voice of gratitude helps ward off the weightiness of the news and events happening around us, because gratitude is also a form of love. In practicing gratitude, we find those things that we truly love and those things that sustain us. In the words of The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, “Love will show us the way.”

Take some time this week to write down three things for which you are grateful. If they involve another person, reach out to that person and let them know. Notice what brings love into your life and cultivate it. In doing so, you will change your world and prepare the way of the Lord.

God is Generous, All the Time

God is Generous, All the Time

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Reflection By Scott Stoner

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.
- (Traditional call and response)

Several years ago, I (Scott) was invited to be a guest preacher at a church outside of my own tradition. I come from a tradition that has occasionally been referred to as the “frozen chosen,” because we are not commonly known for spontaneous expression of emotions in worship.

The church I was visiting was just the opposite of this—singing, clapping, and shouting “Amen” and “Praise God” whenever the Spirit moved them. Their generous spirits were a gift to me, a gift that continues to this day.

One specific call and response I remember was the pastor saying, “God is good,” followed by the congregational response, “All the time.” Then the pastor would say, “All the time,” with the response being, “God is good.” This began and ended the service and was repeated throughout.

Changing one word in this call and response perfectly concludes our week-long reflection on the generosity of God: “God is generous, all the time. All the time, God is generous.”

Even when life is difficult, even when we cannot see or feel God’s presence clearly, God’s generous love remains constant. This doesn’t mean that God causes all things to happen, but that God’s generous love is available to us in all circumstances. Learning to trust God’s generosity helps us practice generosity with our mind—organizing our thoughts and resources around what we know to be true rather than what we fear might be true.

Weekly Integration: How has this week’s focus on God’s generosity helped you become more aware of the bounty in your life? What one thing do you want to carry forward that will help you stay grounded in God’s love? Looking back over this week’s reflections, what resonated most? How might you integrate God’s generosity into your daily routine?

The Generosity of Abundance

The Generosity of Abundance

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Reflection By Scott Stoner

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.
- 2 Corinthians 9:8

One of the greatest barriers to generosity is operating from a scarcity mindset—the belief that there is not enough to go around. This can create anxiety, hoarding, and competition rather than the joy and freedom that accompany true generosity.

God’s generosity, however, flows from abundance. The natural world demonstrates this everywhere. Consider how a single apple tree produces hundreds of apples, each containing multiple seeds capable of growing into new trees. Notice how the ocean contains countless drops of water, each one essential yet part of an inexhaustible whole.

When we understand that God’s resources are limitless, we can approach generosity with confidence rather than fear. We don’t have to worry about running out of love, forgiveness, or compassion because these gifts are continually renewed by God.

An abundance mindset recognizes that generosity actually creates more abundance. When we give freely, we open ourselves to receive more. When we share our resources, we often discover that our capacity to give has increased.

This doesn’t mean we should be unwise or ignore practical realities. Rather, we approach giving with trust in God’s bounty, hearts open to how God multiplies our offerings. Abundance thinking is counter-cultural in a world that constantly tells us we need more to be happy.

Making it Personal: Where do you tend to operate from scarcity rather than abundance? How might deeper trust in God’s generous provision change your giving? Challenge one scarcity thought today by acting from abundance—share something you’ve been holding onto, offer encouragement generously, or give someone the benefit of the doubt.

God’s Generosity in Nature

God’s Generosity in Nature

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Reflection By Scott Stoner

You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, … From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
- Psalm 104:10, 13

Nature has been referred to as God’s first sacred text. Before the sacred texts of the Bible, there was and continues to be the holy text of God’s creation.

Remembering that the root of the word generosity means “to give birth” or “to give life to,” we see in nature the ongoing life-giving generosity of our Creator. One of the signs of how God is present in creation is the response that almost all people have to spiritual experiences they describe in nature. Creation pulsates with the generous energy of God. Like fish who live in the ocean, we live and move and have our being in the abundance of God’s self-giving love.

As with other acts of generosity—whether from God or others—it is all too easy to take such generosity for granted. Stopping to pay attention to the beauty of a butterfly, a bird’s song, a majestic mountain, or the smell of the air after a recent rainfall are simple everyday spiritual practices that reawaken us to the presence of the Divine surrounding us.

When we pause and truly pay attention, the ground we are standing on is always holy ground. Nature’s generosity is constant and unconditional—the sun shines on the just and the unjust, the rain falls on both the grateful and the ungrateful.

Making it Personal: When have you felt close to God in nature? What is something simple you might do or pay more attention to today that will help you connect with God through nature? Consider spending at least five minutes outdoors today (or by a window if necessary) simply observing God’s generosity in creation, noticing what you see, hear, smell, or feel.

Letting God Be Generous to Us

Letting God Be Generous to Us

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
- Luke 15:22-24 (ESV)

Sometimes we resist God’s generosity out of pride or fear. We may feel unworthy of God’s gifts, or we may worry that accepting them will somehow obligate us in ways we’re not prepared for. Yet spiritual maturity includes learning to be humble and grateful recipients of God’s abundant love.

There is a paradox in the spiritual life: we cannot truly give what we have not received. If we consistently refuse to let God be generous to us, we will find ourselves trying to give from empty wells. The most generous people are often those who have learned to welcome God’s gifts with open hearts and grateful spirits.

Consider how a flower absorbs sunlight. It doesn’t question whether it deserves the sun’s rays or worry about how to repay them. It simply opens its petals and takes in what it needs to grow and bloom. In the same way, we are invited to open our hearts to God’s generosity with childlike trust.

This Advent season offers us countless opportunities to practice receiving God’s gifts: the gift of rest, the gift of beauty in creation, the gift of relationships, the gift of hope that comes with the promise of Christ’s birth.

Making it Personal: In what ways might you be resisting God’s generosity? What would it look like to become more gracious in welcoming God’s gifts? Practice this today by consciously noticing one gift from God—whether it’s a moment of beauty, an act of kindness from another person, or simply the breath in your lungs—and receiving it with deliberate gratitude, without trying to “earn” it.

The Parable of the Generous Parent

The Parable of the Generous Parent

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Reflection By Scott Stoner

“Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to celebrate.
- Luke 15:22-24 (ESV)

The parable of the prodigal son is one of the best-known stories that Jesus shared with his followers. It is the story of a loving father who forgives his wayward son after the son leaves home and wastes his share of his inheritance. Thinking he has forsaken his father so entirely that he will not be welcomed home, the son is overwhelmed when instead his father responds with lavish generosity—offering his wayward son a ring, the best robe, a fatted calf, and a grand feast.

While we commonly know this story as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, it could also be called the Parable of the Generous Parent, reflecting the primary focus on how extravagant God’s love is for us. No matter how wayward we have been in our lives, we can always return to God for love and forgiveness, for we have a lavishly generous God.

This parable reveals the heart of God’s generosity—it is not based on our worthiness or performance, but on God’s unchanging love. The father in the story doesn’t wait for an apology or proof of change; he runs to meet his son while he is still far off. This demonstrates generosity of the heart—emotional generosity that flows from love rather than duty.

Making it Personal: What does this story teach you about God’s generosity? When this parable is discussed in Bible studies, members often wonder if they were the father in this story, would they have responded with such love and generosity? How would you answer that question for yourself? Today, notice when someone needs emotional generosity from you—patience, forgiveness, or understanding—and respond with the same lavish love the father showed.

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Grounding Our Generosity in God’s Generosity

Theme For Week One

Reflection By Scott Stoner

We love because God first loved us.
- 1 John 4:19

Yesterday’s reflection introduced us to the profound connection between God’s generosity and our own capacity to be generous. This week, we will deepen our understanding of how God’s abundant love serves as the foundation for all authentic generosity.

When we ground our generosity in God’s generosity, we discover that giving becomes not a burden but a joy. It flows naturally from hearts that have been touched by divine love. This is fundamentally different from generosity motivated by guilt, obligation, or the desire to be seen as good by others.

The season of Advent invites us to slow down and remember that every good gift comes from above. As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, we have the opportunity to cultivate a deeper awareness of God’s generous presence in our lives. This awareness becomes the wellspring from which our own generosity flows.

This week we will explore how practicing generosity in heart, soul, strength, and mind creates a foundation for living that is both deeply meaningful and transformative.

Making it Personal: How does knowing that God is the source of all generosity change your perspective on giving? What might it look like to ground your generosity more deeply in God’s love this Advent season? Each day this week, identify one specific way God has been generous to you in the past 24 hours, and consider how you might respond with generosity toward someone else.

Generosity as an Antidote

Generosity as an Antidote

The First Sunday in Advent

Reflection By Randall Curtis

Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life.
- Luke 21:34

I am like many Americans—an easily excitable consumer. I am certain that Internet ad companies love me. I love finding the new restaurant, listening to the new song, watching the new show and finding the new internet meme. When a squirrel jumps across the path where my dog and I often walk, I am the person who agrees with my dog (at least initially) and thinks chasing the squirrel is a really fun idea. I write this with a confessing heart, but I also know that I am not alone.

In a world that is filled more and more every day with tempting distractions, like cell phones, tech gifts, and pop-up advertisements everywhere, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to consume the newest trend. It is easy, in the race to keep up with it all while worrying about what we might be missing, to spend the day jumping from new excitement to new excitement, from new worry to new worry.

In the first reading of Advent we are told to, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life.” These distractions are the new “drunkenness and worries of this life,” which means that as we prepare for Christmas and God breaking into the world, we will have to make sure we look up from our phones to see it.

This Advent can be a time to prepare for Christmas by stopping the drunken consumption of the newest thing. To put our phones down and stop the worry that is only a notification away.

Then we can ask ourselves:

• What am I missing when I get distracted by “the new”?

• Am I giving more than I am taking from the world?

• How can I be on “guard” against all the ways the insatiable quest for the new sneaks up on me?

• Are there others in my community who need something basic that I could provide, yet might not see in my quest to discover the latest and greatest?

• How can I offer generosity toward my fellow human beings rather than mindlessly taking what the world offers, only a tap or swipe away?

• How can I be more generous to my family, friends, and community as I prepare for the coming of Christ into the world?

Advent is the perfect time to explore how we might give more of ourselves on behalf of God in the world, and how that generosity might be the perfect antidote to being “anxiously drunk.” One way we can “be on guard” is to ask and answer questions like these together. I hope you’ll join me.