"Give it Away": A Reflection on The First Reading for July 29th, 2018: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Kings 4:42-44

42 A man came from Ba'al-shal'ishah, bringing the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Eli'sha said, "Give to the men, that they may eat."43 But his servant said, "How am I to set this before a hundred men?" So he repeated, "Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, `They shall eat and have some left.'" 44 So he set it before them. And they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.

2 Kings 4:43 The Message (MSG)​

43 His servant said, “For a hundred men? There’s not nearly enough!”
Elisha said, “Just go ahead and do it. God says there’s plenty.”

"Just go ahead and do it.
God says there’s plenty."

In events like this one with Elisha, or the feeding of the multitudes with Jesus, it seems like God is using something we can hold, and smell, and taste, to call us to understand something beneath and beyond words. Like He’s trying to create a deep underpinning echo in us of Provision. His Spirit speaking to ours saying, ‘There will be enough. I am enough.’
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There was a time when I was afraid to let something go. I wasn’t worried about a lack of food—it was a lack of love, of feeling special; exceptional. Someone made me feel that way, but it was someone I didn’t have the right to request that from. And when it was time to give it up, I was afraid. During that time, I met with a group of people to pray about something completely unrelated to my inner turmoil. There was a woman in our circle whom I will always trust implicitly in her real walk with God—no guff or fluff. When the meeting was winding down, she came to pray with me and said that she felt God wanted her to pray Psalm 23 over me. She didn’t get beyond the first verse, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall lack nothing’ before she stopped and exclaimed, “That’s it Father! Noreen, He wants you to know you will lack nothing!” Except she said ‘nuffing’ by accident in reading the verse, and laughed and repeated her mispronunciation as she told me what God wanted me to hang onto. “You will lack nuffing!”  It was a perfect way to say it. Made me remember I’m a little kid, really. I have a Father. I will lack nuffing! It’s like He was saying, ‘Let it go. Anything, kiddo. I’ve got you’.

How many things do I get wrong; do we get wrong? How many times do we step out beyond the beautiful boundaries God made for us, because we don’t trust that there is enough for us? 

It goes right back to the garden of Eden. It was that fear that the enemy played on: ‘You won’t have enough.’ God had not given her all that was needed. She was missing out on being more, knowing more. God was holding back, and wouldn’t come through; she would lack, if she didn’t grab on and hold tightly to the fruit.

Our Lord leads us gently from grasping to giving. He let it all go Himself. Like Saint Paul described in Philippians 2: Not grasping to his position and power and preeminence, but giving it all up. On the cross. For us. Fearlessly. With full trust in His Father, no matter what. The enemy had tried to tempt Him to take bread, take glory, take power. But He gave it all away.

I have found that generosity isn’t just a virtue. It’s a protection God gives us against the fear of ‘not enough’. There’s so much we hang onto—or grab at—because we’re afraid we won’t have enough otherwise:

Food
Time
Money
Space
Accolades
Attention
Pleasure
Wisdom
Love

But God says there’s plenty. Give it away.

You will lack ‘nuffing’.

​Noreen Smith

"I have found that generosity isn’t just a virtue. It’s a protection God gives us against the fear of ‘not enough’." - Noreen Smith (Ora Reflections)