The Generosity Projectಮಾದರಿ

When God wanted to change the world, what did He do? He let go.

The Father let go of Jesus. Jesus let go of any position or power and became the most vulnerable of creatures—a baby. The greatest example we can follow is the one God displayed for us.

As He looked at the world He created, He saw a society filled with pain, sin, and brokenness. In response, Jesus chose to spend himself on us. He let go of His very life so that we could be free, and John writes, “This is how we know what love is…” That’s a line we might want to pay attention to. If we want to love the way Jesus loves, we must let go of our self-focused attitudes.

The Lord is asking us to follow in His way. We can look to a Father who understands the difficulty of letting go and responding to His call. We can look to Jesus who knows what it is to spend Himself and lean on Him for strength. Isn’t our goal to be like Him? He asks us to open our eyes to others in need and to “love them with actions and in truth.” It seems that, to God, loving others, and letting go are inseparable. We attempt to love others and still have all the comforts and conveniences our hearts desire. What if there is an aspect of true freedom and happiness that can only come by letting go of things that hold a position in our hearts that God wants to hold Himself?

It is unbelievable love that asks something so great of us and then gives us more than we ever could have imagined in return. We will spend the rest of the week exploring what this means in our lives. We can be encouraged that as God is calling us to let go of some things, we are not alone… we are serving Someone who understands and Someone who has walked this road of letting go long before us.

Research: Who’s Helping?

Today, we want you to start researching how the needs you learned about yesterday are being met. Look at the list of needs you made yesterday and pick the one that you feel most passionate about helping to meet. Next, choose a place where that pain is particularly prevalent. Maybe you feel strongly about poverty in Asia, education funding in your state, or people who don’t have enough food in your city. Whatever you choose, your next step is to research organizations helping people affected by that issue. Find as many organizations as you can. What do they do? How do they help people? Make another list - this time of the top three organizations you would be interested in working with.

Activity: Spending Your Time

Tonight our activity is a little more reflective. Sit down with your family and make a list of where you’re spending your time in an average week. How much of your time is spent on social media? How much hanging out with friends? How much reading, or playing sports, or just sitting around? Include even the mundane, necessary things, like sleeping or eating. On what are you spending yourself? Then ask the hard question: is it worth it?

Prayerfully examine your list and choose two or three things to restructure, whether that’s through putting a one- or two-episode limit on the Netflix show you’re currently bingeing, making space in your morning routine to read your Bible for half an hour, or adding family time to talk about your day after dinner. The changes don’t have to be huge or have to happen overnight, but there is always something in our day that we could move around or shorten to do something more important.