Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it.*
And how are we to spend ourselves for the sake of the world that God loves? For the recognition? For the virtue?
For the hope of return in the future? Maybe for the pleasure?
No, we “give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.”**
Give without allowing the left hand to know what the right hand does.
Give without hope for heaven or fear of hell.***
If you experience forgiveness, you will be forgiving. If you encounter mercy, you will be merciful.
Exhausting yourself in giving grows more from pride than from love. The world’s salvation is not up to you. So back off!
In Jesus’ parable, we are neither the sower nor the seed. We are the ground. Direct all your longing to be fertile soil. The sower will come, and the seed will be planted, in good time.
It is no sin to leave some things for our children—and to God.****
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Mark 4:26-34 & Matthew 6:3-4. *Line from the Talmud. **Line from Kahlil Gibran. ***Line from Rabia al-Adawiyya, 8th century Sufi mystic. ****Line from Walter Rauschenbusch.