The Way of Abundance by Ann Voskamp

Author:Ann Voskamp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2018-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

FOR REFLECTION

•Where have you felt too broken for your gifts to be wanted? And where do you feel like you have nothing naturally to give, but God is asking you to let Him give the supernatural?

•Where have you been living the myth of scarcity and God is asking you to be a giver and a gifter and live the mystery of abundance?

Devotion 32

LIVING GIVEN

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

MATTHEW 5:16

Jamie-Lynn stood at the checkout aisle of Trader Joe’s with a baby slung on her hip and couldn’t find even a dime in her purse. She needed $200 for the bill and her cart of groceries. Debit card at home, credit card declined, and the baby had to be howling in her ear.

Matthew Jackson stepped out of line. “Let me cover it.”

You know—let your shortcomings be covered with long kindnesses. Jamie-Lynn refused. Matthew insisted. Please.

She looked up and could see it in Matthew Jackson’s eyes: he meant it. The kid meant it.

“Look, you don’t have to pay me back.” Matthew Jackson pulled out his wallet. “Just give it forward.”

Truth is: we can’t pay it back—we can only give it forward. And this is the same thing. There are times we get to restore each other to strength.

Yes, Jamie-Lynn said, yes, she would give it forward, and she scribbled down his name and where he worked so she could thank him again. Somehow.

A week later, Jamie-Lynn rang up Matthew’s boss. Could she stop by to thank Matthew—offer some gift of thanks?

“Matthew’s dead,” he said. “Car accident last week—not far from that Trader Joe’s.”

I heard it once said: “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”

Less than twenty-four hours after Matthew had paid her bill, his car wrapped around a tree and his heart slammed to a stop. But he didn’t die when he struck that tree because this is how the universe works: give love and you always stay alive, even after you’re gone. Kindness multiplies each time it’s shared, grows until it becomes a blazing act of heroic courage, much later and far away.

Jamie-Lynn was heartbroken, but nothing could stop her from keeping her promise to him to give his grace forward. She told people about Matthew’s gift of kindness and she asked them to give it forward—and they did! Glorious people, from small town, back road, and every side of this spinning world, giving it forward. Driving cancer patients to the hospital and donating blood and reading to kids down at the library and having a coffee ready for the mail carrier and handing out flowers at the gas station and buying the milk for the woman in the checkout line. People gave forward the act of kindness Matthew Jackson began.

Small things can change everything, even when we feel like we have nothing to give. Every one of us can start changing headlines when we start reaching out our hands.

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