Week 1 | Day 5 | More Than Enough

Command:

Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow from you. Matthew 5:42 (TLB)

Read:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

Reflect:

My Lolo and Lola raised my Kuya and me from infancy until I was about five. We lived in a province where Dad had a home built for them. Mom and Dad were young professionals working in Manila, so we were left in the care of Lolo and Lola most of the day. Every morning before the sun rose, my sixty-five-year-old Lola would walk a mile to the market to purchase provisions for our daily meals. Though of little means, she managed to cook up two meals for the entire family of six – eggs and fresh pandesal for breakfast, and a pot of soup with fresh vegetables and some protein for lunch and dinner.

To make ends meet, Lola and Lolo ran a small convenience store where they sold a variety of everyday items – bath soap, detergent, Juicy Fruit gum, matches, rice grains. At home, Lola would freeze flavored water in thin plastic sleeves to sell to the neighborhood kids for ten cents apiece. Lola’s entrepreneurial nature helped to keep our family afloat, albeit by a thin margin.

Oftentimes, neighbors would run a tab at the convenience store that they later couldn’t afford to pay. Kids almost always didn’t have the money to buy a refreshing stick of flavored water. Yet Lola never turned anyone away. Knowing full-well that the young mother down the street would never be able to pay back what she owed, Lola would scoop out a cup or two of rice for her to cook for her family; she’d give away frozen treats to the kids and invite them to watch cartoons at our home – the only one with a TV and a freezer in the barrio.

Lolo and Lola were not only incredibly generous and overflowing with love for our family, they were also extraordinarily compassionate towards their neighbors. Though they didn’t have much, paradoxically, they actually had more than enough. Most of their store customers were never able to pay their tab. No matter. They weren’t really relying on that to keep us afloat. They relied on God.

React:

To whom can you show radical generosity? What would that look like for you?

Pray:

God, open my eyes to see the needs around me. Ready my hands to care for those in need.