Generosity: What it's really all about

Being a missionary can be hard. Some days it seems nearly impossible to continually be called to give all of yourself. Not only are we called to give of ourselves, but also our things. Sometimes I feel that as Americans we have this selfishness ingrained in us. We have this “mine” mentality. I have tried to spend this year undoing that mentality. And I have failed miserably over and over again. But the other day, I witnessed something that inspired and challenged me in a whole new way; something that has changed my outlook on generosity, forever.

I was giving my friend Francisca a ride home. She had just been grocery shopping (which needless to say is a treat for her.) Her husband has never held a steady job so they rarely if ever have money. Their family usually lives week to week from “dispensas”(a bag of groceries we give to the people here with just basic food items). But this week, she had sold some earrings and earned $100 pesos(about $8USD) and was able to go grocery shopping! She was very excited and came home with one bag full of food. As we were driving home, Lucy, who is perpetually hungry, kept trying to dig in the bag and steal some food. We laughed about it and I even joked that Lucy was trying to rob her. As we got out of the van, Francisca started to dig around in her grocery sack. I of course thought “Oh no, she’s checking to see if Lucy got into something” and went on to think about how I was going to apologize to this woman for my daughter stealing her food. She continued to dig, I began to sweat and feel terrible, and then she pulled out a banana. She handed it to Lucy. I was blown away.
Here this woman is who rarely has enough food to feed her family, and she just hands a banana to my daughter (who obviously isn’t going hungry) out of her precious bag of groceries. She could have easily thought “l am not going to give these people anything. They could go buy food anytime they wanted and I hardly have enough.” But no, she didn’t think anything of it. Here, one of the poorest of the poor gave away her own food to my baby.

“And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” Mark 12:41-44

In the past, I read this bible verse and knew that I have always given out of my excess, and at that, barely given. But Francisca showed me what Generosity truly is. It is opening your heart to every single person in every single situation. It is giving when it hurts and not thinking anything of it.  I am so grateful for these moments where God slaps me in the face and gives me a wakeup call. Today He is calling every one of us to give whether it is of our time, our finances, or our prayers. He is calling us to give ESPECIALLY when it hurts and we feel we have no more to give; to give out of our poverty, not our surplus. My prayer is that each of us will open our hearts to give everything for He who gave it all for us.