I was pondering the idea of self-giving and generosity. One facet of it might be to think of two children with helium balloons. They are outside and the seemingly inevitable happens, one of them lets go. The balloon-less child begins wailing with grief and the other child runs over and says, "Here, have mine".
It is a simple, in the moment, action. As adults, we tend to rationalize away this sort of generosity with blame and anger at the person who has lost out. It allows us to keep our balloon. One aspect of these weeks in which we find ourselves, that we want to rationalize why, stay away, it might not mean us.
Spending this time well will involve generosity and not pursuit. They are different - pursuit will lead us into a combative angry stance where we end up saying "Whose fault is this anyway?" and throwing blame. Generosity will give us energy to live out of kindness for the other. This kindness might look different to the kindness we are accustomed to. It will involve sacrifice - especially in finding the discipline to stay away from others, to curtail activities we enjoy and to watch our churches, stores and schools stand empty. There is very little that feels good about this sort of generosity.
This is worth thinking about. These themes of generosity and sacrifice. Jesus tells us that whoever tends the sick, lame, hungry and poor cares for him. Right now, for most people, caring for the most vulnerable means staying out of their presence and remaining healthy so that you are not in the hospital bed that they need if they get sick.
Comments