How Thanks and Giving cultivate abundance

This past Sunday we wrapped-up our Good and Beautiful God series and began the transition into the season of Advent with a talk entitled How Thanks and Giving Cultivate Abundance. As always it is humbling to listen to a bit of the talk. I am quite thankful today for the opportunity to clarify a couple of things and also for the ability to edit the actual talk itself with sound editing software.


For some reason I began the talk with a plethora of “um’s, and uh’s.” So I cut the first two and a half minutes right out of the talk. Really, um, you will, uh, like not miss it, um, at all. I also cut about the last five minutes to shorten the talk, so that it will seem more concise than it actually was.


I’m also thankful for the opportunity to clarify something. Kristine pointed out that the talk could have been construed to have been saying that if you are suffering from depression it is probably because you are ungrateful. Let me be clear in writing. That is not at all what I meant to convey. I know that depression is an unwanted life - draining reality for many of us with many varied causes.


What I did mean to say is that Jesus came to bring us life, and one thing that he modeled and that the whole of scripture commends to us is giving thanks. Many studies in recent years have shown that Jesus was right. Giving thanks is indeed good for us. It boosts our feelings of happiness; we will be more likely to exercise; lowers blood pressure; makes us feel more socially connected etc.


Conversely the Bible warns against ingratitude. Not saying thanks has a way of shrinking our world. It narrows our focus to what we do not have, and the more intent our focus becomes on the thing we do not have the less happy we become. An interesting story that illustrates this in scripture is the story of Ahab who is the King of Israel. Being king is a pretty prime position, but he becomes focused on a Vineyard that he does not have. I suppose you could say the same of David as he becomes fixated on Bathsheba (he already has a quite a few wives at that point – incidentally just because something is recorded in the Bible doesn’t mean that God thinks it is a good idea - for example David’s multiples wives). You may have seen this illustrated at times in your own life when you become focused on the thing that you want, that you don’t have and it begins to rob your enjoyment of what you do have. I talked about how I sometimes see this in my children, (it is easier than talking about how I see in my children than to talk about how I see it in me – which I do).


In the Bible passage we looked at John 6. The disciples are approaching their situation from a position of scarcity, “There isn’t enough.” Jesus approaches the situation with a heart of thankfulness and abundance.I believe that saying thanks changes our perspective and opens our hearts and our hands.


After Jesus gives thanks he begins to distribute the bread. He isn’t hoarding what he has. Instead he is giving. The Bible frequently commends giving. Giving also boosts our levels of happiness. Giving it turns out is actually good for us. Paul says to the Corinthians that as they give they will be rich in every way. 


Sometimes I think we are tempted to think that the primary reward from giving will be that we will actually end up with more money. This may or may not be the case, but I think ultimately misses the point. If the money is our focus then we are still living from a narrative which points to money as the source of happiness, a narrative which points to money as a source of life. The Bible is clear that God is the source of life. I think that giving is an opportunity to focus our hearts on God and on others. This focus on loving God and loving others, leads to a life that is rich in every way. In other words we will really be living. We will be discovering that Jesus really did come to bring us life.

We are about to enter a season where many different voices will be saying you need more. You need to spend more you need this. I showed one of the ads that at least approaches the event of Black Friday with a sense of humor…

It is a funny commercial, but there is a reality that you had better be in pretty decent shape if you are planning on venturing out Friday morning. Because narratives about shortage and want do lead to grasping and pushing behavior.

I suggested a few soul training exercises, that may help us focus on God. Let me be perfectly clear. You won’t win God’s favor through these exercises. God won’t love you more if you do them, nor will God love you less if you don’t. But, they might be an opportunity to discover more of the life that Jesus points towards.

- Make a no complaint pledge from here to Thanksgiving

- Record at least 5 things you are thankful for at the end of the day

- Sleep in and buy nothing on Friday

- During the next week every time a commercial comes on get up and take inventory of what you have

- Give gifts that help change the world like ducks, or goats or jewelery from the WAR Chest