40 Days 40 Gifts Day 7

Day 7 - FAIL!

I didn't give anything yesterday. I had intended to give the gift of time and work on a CV for my parent's gardener so that he could use it to find more secure employment, but I ended up focusing on my work all day and focusing on my own enjoyment in the evening - leaving me no time to edit his CV.

I was too busy prioritising my own interests to think about other people's interests. That doesn't mean I've given up. Back on the band wagon tomorrow and perhaps I need to double up a gift one day to make sure I meet the 40 gift target.

So today I'd like to reflect on a comment that was posted on yesterday's blog.

I am focusing this lent on some of Jesus' most difficult teachings about our attachment to possessions and our selfishness in that. The risk I run in blogging about this is to give the impression that Jesus' laws are tough and that there is no room for error or selfishness. So perhaps it's a good thing I failed at giving today.

I certainly don't want that to be the impression. I am focusing on this during lent because it's a spiritual journey I need to take and one I think many of us would do well to reflect on. BUT, that needs to go hand in hand with a proviso that ultimately Jesus reaches out to us, no matter whether we are giving or in need of gifts, no matter whether we are deliberately seeking spiritual growth or holding out our hands to just feel his touch for a moment, no matter whether we are living grateful lives or searching desperately to see where God might be in the quagmire of our lives.

Basically, we cannot ALWAYS be focused on being grateful and giving and being deliberate about growing spiritually. Sometimes we need to retreat into ourselves, to mourn, to be angry with God, to feel our loss and wonder where God's blessings are... Sometimes we need to be a little "selfish" in order to heal.

Importantly, Jesus reaches out to us as much, if not more, in those times.

I think though, in God's great plan or us, that when some are in situations when they are in desperate need of receiving God's love and community compassion, others are in positions where they are able to willinglingly and joyfully give so that those in need are able to receive.