Generosity of God

Ernest Shackleton, a principal of the early expeditions of Antarctica, was one of the first explorers to make his way nearly all the way to the south pole.  In 1908, on one such journey, his party, having reached as far as they could, found themselves struggling in a life-threatening fight against starvation to return to their ship, barely surviving on less-than a half-ration a day diet.

At some point, the expedition seemed hopelessly doomed when the party reached the end of their rations as one last hardtrack, a dried biscuit, was given to each man.  Some of the men ate their biscuit upon reception while others simply packed it away to tide them over for the remainder of their arduous journey.  Needless to say, the party's morale was abysmally low and one man in particular was nearing death by starvation.

On a certain evening, while most of the party was asleep in their hooch tents, one of the explorers was awoken by a noise.  He looked across the dark of the tent over his sleeping companions to see Shackleton looking through someone else's things.  The man recognized that it was the starving man's bag that Shackleton was rummaging through and he nearly gasped in disbelief and disappointment.  But to the man's surprise, Shackleton pulled the biscuit out of his own pack and put it in the starving man's.  

Shackleton sacrificed his own ration for the good of another, not knowing when or even if he would have enough for himself.  In the end, the expedition made it back to their ship and, ultimately, back to England, where Shackleton was promptly knighted for his valor and fortitude.  Shackleton became a national hero for his efforts, but it was his sacrificial leadership in giving that is most remarkable.

We should take on the same sort of attitude in giving as generously and without reservation as Shackleton did.  Scripture says that "God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7)" and, "A generous man will prosper (Pro. 11:25)" and, "A generous man himself will be blessed (Pro. 22:9)."  Generosity will be met with blessings form the Lord, which should remind us that God gives to us all we need.  As if this was not evidence enough to support a certain biblical ethic of generosity, consider the words of Christ Himself:

" Jesus said, 'Give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38).'"

God desires for us to be His acting agents of compassion and generosity.  Therefore, we need to make every effort to be supernaturally generous.  This is not to overlook the natural challenges to generosity, namely our flesh and selfishness.  Rather, it should prompt us to become more reliant on God to grant us the strength to open our hands in generosity instead of closing our fists to clench on to what we think is ours.  The principle can be simply summarized in, the more freely we give to others in love the more we will receive from God, who blessed those who give generously.

For God does and will provide for us beyond our dreams if we would give to others with a generosity that is overflowing.  And, like Shackleton, we should seek to give for the good of others in the denial of ourselves.  Let us then look to Christ so as to give generously with no mind for repayment but only to love God by loving those whom He loves!