to give or not to give

The last three weeks I've been home for the holidays has been spent enjoying the wealth of friends and family that have filled my life beyond abundance. From sushi to Starbucks, I've come to know the best gift of life is relationship...connecting with people in places where bits of my heart will forever be embedded.

On the last night of my trip, I found myself in an empty, snow-filled field, watching hungry flames lick clean a neighbour's home. It was a sobering moment - filled with both the fascination of an uncontrolled beast, and the grief for one's material embodiment being destroyed in a frozen fragment of time.


And as the skeletal frame,
weakened by the heated breath,
caved beneath the conquest,
I felt pained for the departure
of a life's collection of things -
woven together by time
and memory,
treasured by the collector.

So often we become embodied by what we own.
The clothes we wear.
The cars we drive.
The houses we live in.
Our gadgets.
Our toys.
Our boxes of pictures and memories.
They become our means of existance,
creating that eternal vaccuum that craves more.

With these pictures haunting my thoughts during church,
I heard the call to live generously.
To give not only of our excess,
but our self.
As I look over the unchartered waters of the new year,
I feel challenged to learn what it means to stand open-handed
with all that I may possess -
Materially.
Physically.
Spiritually.
Emotionally.
Timelessly.
Relentlessly.
Selflessly.


My neighbours had no choice in losing their earthly possessions.
Every day we do.
It is our choice what we will keep for ourselves
and what we will give away.
We have a voice as to what will bind us,
and what will bless others.

Will I see all that glitters is rarely gold?
Will I escape the grasping pursuit
of what will find it's rusty, moth-eaten end
in the realm of a passing world,
and sow into a treasure that will not be destroyed?
Will my identity find its bedrock
in the Giver of all things,
and recognize my calling
as a conduit of His blessing?
To live generously in relationship.
Selflessly in possessions.
To use my means to end
someone's end of means.
For in my pursuit of life
and the things I have and am,
there must be an extension
that finds a face behind the need
and gives...
Generously.
Intentionally.
Radically.
Extravagantly.
Personally.
For the purpose of humanity.


Because at the end of the fires,
our first thoughts are never of the things that can be replaced.
The burning question is...
did everyone make it out safely?