Here we are again. Another Lent. Another wilderness wandering. Another start to reflecting on the world via my very sporadic writings. It seems Lent has been the time I feel most compelled to write. Perhaps because of the introspective nature of the season. Maybe it’s just the experience of taking the United Methodist Photo-A-Day challenge and turning it into a post. All I know is here we are again and here I go again.
Day 18: Share
Central to my understanding of community is the sharing of life together. This is the family sitting around tables to eat together. It is the friends enjoying a “happy hour.” It is the sojourner sipping a coffee with a fellow traveler.
It is especially sweet when the sharing is a surprise as it was for me this morning.
Spring Break has us checking out area coffee shops. Drifting into a new to us (my wife and I) coffee shop, it was a delight to run into some old friends. Because they are who they are, they offered to buy our drinks.
We need more of this. Not just when we know the people we bless by sharing some of what we have, but gracing complete strangers with the abundance of God. Today it was a couple of lattes. It could be a meal or a shirt or a place to stay. What we share is important, as I hope it connects to someone’s needs, even more important may be the motivation to share which I hope grows in me and others.
The friends who bought our drinks probably didn’t even think much about the gift they were offering. Giving…sharing…loving…is simply their posture toward others. What does it take to develop such a posture? What contributes to someone becoming one who shares freely? How might it become so natural that we don’t distinguish between friend and stranger when we share?
There are likely many factors that go into forming such a heart for giving. Having themselves been beneficiaries of grace. A deep trust in God’s provision. Empathy that sees the needs of the world. A desire to do good when possible. We might even see this impulse to share as connected to the Spirit. (I keep coming back to the Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.)
As I have been doing through this season of Lent, I am reflecting on my own heart in these matters. What “fruit” is evidenced in my life? When I share, what is my motivation? When I don’t, why not? What might it look like for me to grow to become more sharing, more giving, more caring?
I had a dirty chai purchased for me today, and as is often the case, that generosity has me considering my own sharing. I will be looking for my own opportunity to share. Imagine a world where we were all seeking such opportunities.
Life is better together,
Shawn
Big Rubber Band Ball 