On Giving What You Don’t Have

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

Are you currently experiencing the feeling of not having enough?

Maybe you feel like your energy is tanking.

Maybe you have so little joy you can’t remember the last time you belly laughed.

Or maybe you’re struggling to find time for yourself.

Even if you’re not struggling to find your next meal, you feel poor.

You wake up feeling like we don’t have enough. You go through your days “penny-pinching” to preserve precious resources. Yet, you go to bed feeling completely depleted and “starving.”

You’re starving for love.

You’re starving for attention.

You’re starving for affection.

You’re starving for spiritual food. You’re too proud to beg. You’re too ashamed to ask.

And you’re not sure if you have the resources to get through another day…

Spiritual poverty and Biblical abundance

If you feel like you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel of life, consider this story:

There was once a widow who lived in a distant land. There was a significant drought and the woman had run out of food for herself and her young son, save for a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.

She happened to be gathering sticks to make her last meal when a stranger appeared and asked for a small cupful of water to drink.

As she was complying with his request, he called out, “Please bring along a bit of bread.”

She finally spoke up saying, “As the LORD, your God, lives, I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.”

After the man listened, he encouraged the widow to not be afraid. He told her to do as she wished but not before she made him a little cake (he upgraded his request yet again).

But then he said this, “For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,’The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'”

With that, the woman did as he asked and sure enough, her jar and jug produced flour and oil for a year…

Give what you most want to receive

This story comes from the book of 1 Kings 17. The man is Elijah, the woman is the widow of Zarephath.

The lesson? Give, even when you believe you don’t have enough.

Has penny-pinching or hoarding not worked? Then try this:

If you’re starving for love, give love.
If you’re starving for attention, give attention.
If you’re starving for affection, give affection.
If you’re starving for comfort, comfort

And of course, if you’re starving for time and money, take a leap of faith and give of your time and material resources.

But what about self-care?

How is it that at precisely the moment one is experiencing their darkest hour, they are asked to give?

How is it possible to believe that if you give the last of your precious resources (whether material or emotional), you will reap a return a hundredfold?

Should that be a motivation for giving?

And what about self-care? What about putting ourselves first? Filling our own tanks?

It’s perfectly sensible to operate on the assumption that you cannot give when your tank is empty.

Yet, the story of the widow of Zarephath defies this convention. Does this give us license to throw self-care out the window and overextend themselves?

I don’t think so.

But ask yourself—Had the widow of Zarephath practiced self-care, would she and her son have survived the drought?

Is it possible that giving from your poverty can be a form of self-care?

Your jug will not run dry

In the end, the key to surviving the drought in your life is this:

Trust that your jug will not run dry.

Even when you’re feeling empty, trust this most basic spiritual assumption. Let this abundance framework inform your choices instead of the fear that comes with scarcity.

And you’ll never again have to be afraid of being compelled to give what you don’t have.