Signposts: Daily Devotions

Saturday, July 5

A generous person will be enriched...
—Proverbs 11:25a

Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say that a person should give until it hurts. Not because a person needs to feel the ache of personal sacrifice, but because we are always tempted to give just enough to assuage guilt. In other words, we stop short of generosity. As long as we give only enough to get by, whether it be of our time, our money, our energy, or our commitment, we will never taste the sweetness of generosity.

What makes the feeling of generosity so sweet is that when we are truly generous, we realize that we don't really need to hold on to anything. The eye of heaven is watching over us as diligently as it watches over the smallest sparrow. This is why the poor often find it the easiest to give.

Because they have nothing to protect, they do not try to hold onto what little they have. They open their hand and heart and let it all go, and just when it seems they are left with nothing at all, the Holy One reaches out and fills them with blessing. If we could become as liberal as the poor, we might be surprised to find that we are stepping onto the golden avenue of pure freedom and blessing.

O God, when my hand and heart are as closed as a tight fist, lead me to the open field of generosity that ends in a path of blessing.

The Signposts for July are written by Renée Miller and originally appeared on explorefaith.org in 2004.