generous /jĕn′ər-əs/: Liberal in giving or sharing.
Have you ever pondered how generous Jesus is to you? Have you ever seriously thought about how generosity is so engrained in Jesus’ character that he can’t help but be generous to you? When you think about it long enough and hard enough, you will quickly realize how generous he is to you especially in his gentleness towards you in all ways and all things. The reason you know of his generosity of gentleness to you is because you are deeply loved and in that love you can be comforted and find the generous outpouring of gentleness that you so desperately need. Jesus cares deeply for you and that also is a source of his generous gentleness.
One of the greatest examples of this is the analogy of the shepherd and sheep. Jesus is your shepherd and you are one of his sheep. One of the most generous and caring relationships is the one between a shepherd and their flock of sheep. The shepherd leads the sheep, cares for the sheep, calms the sheep, provides for the sheep, and protects the sheep. The sheep know the voice of their shepherd and respond to that one voice. That is you and Jesus. Jesus is that leading, caring, calming, providing, and protecting shepherd who does all of this with generous gentleness that moves you to respond to him, follow him, and trust him.
Even in the worst of times in your life, Jesus is generous in his gentleness. When you are burdened, Jesus doesn’t judge you for the burden. When you are sad, Jesus doesn’t judge you for the sadness. When you are disappointed, Jesus doesn’t judge you for the disappointment. Jesus doesn’t look at you and tell you all of it is your fault. When your yoke has been heavy, Jesus gives you his yoke which is so much lighter. When you have felt the weight of burdens, Jesus takes the load from you.
Even when others are not gentle towards you, Jesus is generously gentle with you. In your times of doubt and struggle, people sometimes are not gentle with you. They will put you down and make you think it is all your fault. They will say things like, “If you just did more quiet times, more work, more Bible studies, prayed more, exercised more faith, etc.” But when you turn to Jesus you just hear him telling you to give him your heavy yoke and take his yoke. You hear Jesus telling you to release your burden and give it to him. You hear Jesus telling you in your weariness, come to him for rest.
When you truly realize how generous Jesus is with his gentleness to you, you can’t help but be generous with yourself. So often you are your worst enemy and your worst critic. When something goes wrong, you are so quick to blame and doubt yourself. You beat yourself up about things that happen in your life thinking it is all your fault. But through Jesus’ example, you should choose to be generous with yourself. Gentle with your expectations. Gentle with your demands. Gentle with your soul and your story. Gentle with the people and relationships in your life. Gentle with your needs, wants, and desires. Gentle with your good heart and curious mind.
In order to experience Jesus’ generous gentleness, he calls you to what I call, The Process of “Re”. Re-set, Re-adjust, Re-start, Re-focus, Re-charge. And, honestly the best place to truly experience Jesus’ generous gentleness is in the wilderness. The wilderness is where you experience Jesus’ constant presence and you trust him the most and that is where you meet God in the most meaningful ways. It has been said the wilderness is an altar of intimacy with God.
God was a constant presence with the children of Israel in their wanderings in the desert (wilderness). God was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When God moved, they followed. God never left them. Even through their moments of stubbornness, they did see God miraculously provide and did eventually learn to trust him. In the wilderness, God gave them victory over their enemies, God provided food from heaven, and he even provided water from a rock. When you are in the wilderness you are always on the edge of what you don’t know and with every step you are learning to trust and believe.
Patricia Overton once said, “When you come to the edge of all the light that you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”
Recently I came across Eugene Peterson’s, The Message translation of Jesus’ words to take his yoke and burden when we are weary, burdened and in need of rest. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Have you ever been there? Are you there now? Are you burned out? Are you weary, burdened, and in need of rest? Do you need to learn how to live freely and lightly? Are you in need of rhythms of grace in the midst of the chaotic pace of life? Are you in need of a generous portion of gentleness? If so, get alone with Jesus in the wilderness so you can experience his generous gentleness in your life. As you do, you will learn to be more generous with yourself.
(Several ideas in this post are from Field Notes for the Wilderness-Sarah Bessey)