RESPONDING TO GOD'S EXTRAVAGANT LOVE -- PAY IT FORWARD!
2 Corinthians 9:7-14
Whenever I'm down or stressed out, I like to make soup. It becomes meditation in motion as I chop vegetables, brown meat and stir the pot. It is, many times, an experience of the divine, and, in response to grace, it many times becomes an act of generosity.
I always make more than I can eat or my freezer can hold, so I give some of it away. Sometimes, it is an affirmation of my love and friendship. Other times, its a gift of comfort and assurance, and there are times when it helps a busy person have a hot meal.
I am blessed in the making of the soup, and blessed in the giving of it. Touching people's lives is what gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. I'm not smart enough to win a Nobel Prize in nuclear physics or write the great American novel. I'm not rich enough to set up a charitable foundation like Bill Gates, but I do know what I am. I am blessed beyond measure with more than enough to be the person God created me to me and to do the things Christ asks of me.
Ten-thousand BBs worth, in fact.
In the devotion, Joy Breaks, Barbara Johnson tells about the time she sent her husband out to buy her a BB, a single BB. She had been told that if she put a BB in her bottle of liquid foundation, it would keep the make-up from clumping up, making it last longer. Having accomplished his mission, her husband presented her with a package of 10,000 BBs. Apparently, that was the smallest sized container at the store. (By the way, in case you're dying to know, 10,000 BBs weighs about eight pounds.)
Barbara thanked her husband, took the one BB she needed and put the remaining 9,999 on a shelf in the garage. There was no way she would ever use them all.
That's just like God's extravagant love for us. God just loves us and blesses us so-o-o much, that there's no way in this lifetime we're ever going to use it all. No matter how much we share our blessings with others, there will always be lots left over. So why not be generous, why not respond to God's extravagant love by paying it forward?
Trevor McKinney's social studies teacher, in the movie, Pay it Forward, gives his students the assignment of coming up with a project that will change the world and put it into action. Trevor's idea is, "Pay It Forward." Trevor will do favors for people and then ask them to repay the favor by doing one for three other people, and so forth. While Trevor's initial attempts seem to fail, as the movie unfolds, we watch the affects of his good deeds multiply and spread across the country.
In the passage from 2 Corinthians 9:7-14, that's what Paul is telling us to do: respond to God's extravagant love by paying it forward, sharing with others from the bounty of God's blessings, multiplying God's goodness as it is passed on from person to person.
It is through God's extravagant love and giving that we, together as the Church, the hands and feet of Christ are empowered to feed the five thousand, to heal the sick, to clothe the naked and give water to the thirsty, visit those in the prison of their lives and welcome the stranger, no matter what country he or she is from.
Together, we have been given all that we need to dig a well so a village in Africa can have clean drinking water, be advocates for peace and justice and bring comfort to victims of natural disasters all over this country and the world.
Through Christ, we receive all the blessings we need, and then some, to be the people God has created us to be and to participate in the ministry of Christ and the mission of God to make a difference, to change people's lives, to help them to find meaning and purpose as we have. And all we're called to do, is to pay it forward.
Whenever I'm down or stressed out, I like to make soup. It becomes meditation in motion as I chop vegetables, brown meat and stir the pot. It is, many times, an experience of the divine, and, in response to grace, it many times becomes an act of generosity.
I always make more than I can eat or my freezer can hold, so I give some of it away. Sometimes, it is an affirmation of my love and friendship. Other times, its a gift of comfort and assurance, and there are times when it helps a busy person have a hot meal.
I am blessed in the making of the soup, and blessed in the giving of it. Touching people's lives is what gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. I'm not smart enough to win a Nobel Prize in nuclear physics or write the great American novel. I'm not rich enough to set up a charitable foundation like Bill Gates, but I do know what I am. I am blessed beyond measure with more than enough to be the person God created me to me and to do the things Christ asks of me.
Ten-thousand BBs worth, in fact.
In the devotion, Joy Breaks, Barbara Johnson tells about the time she sent her husband out to buy her a BB, a single BB. She had been told that if she put a BB in her bottle of liquid foundation, it would keep the make-up from clumping up, making it last longer. Having accomplished his mission, her husband presented her with a package of 10,000 BBs. Apparently, that was the smallest sized container at the store. (By the way, in case you're dying to know, 10,000 BBs weighs about eight pounds.)
Barbara thanked her husband, took the one BB she needed and put the remaining 9,999 on a shelf in the garage. There was no way she would ever use them all.
That's just like God's extravagant love for us. God just loves us and blesses us so-o-o much, that there's no way in this lifetime we're ever going to use it all. No matter how much we share our blessings with others, there will always be lots left over. So why not be generous, why not respond to God's extravagant love by paying it forward?
Trevor McKinney's social studies teacher, in the movie, Pay it Forward, gives his students the assignment of coming up with a project that will change the world and put it into action. Trevor's idea is, "Pay It Forward." Trevor will do favors for people and then ask them to repay the favor by doing one for three other people, and so forth. While Trevor's initial attempts seem to fail, as the movie unfolds, we watch the affects of his good deeds multiply and spread across the country.
In the passage from 2 Corinthians 9:7-14, that's what Paul is telling us to do: respond to God's extravagant love by paying it forward, sharing with others from the bounty of God's blessings, multiplying God's goodness as it is passed on from person to person.
It is through God's extravagant love and giving that we, together as the Church, the hands and feet of Christ are empowered to feed the five thousand, to heal the sick, to clothe the naked and give water to the thirsty, visit those in the prison of their lives and welcome the stranger, no matter what country he or she is from.
Together, we have been given all that we need to dig a well so a village in Africa can have clean drinking water, be advocates for peace and justice and bring comfort to victims of natural disasters all over this country and the world.
Through Christ, we receive all the blessings we need, and then some, to be the people God has created us to be and to participate in the ministry of Christ and the mission of God to make a difference, to change people's lives, to help them to find meaning and purpose as we have. And all we're called to do, is to pay it forward.
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