good will come

It’s hard to give. Money or time, we always have less than we wish we did. But it struck me this morning that in times like these, that’s by far the best thing for us to do.

Psalms 112:4 says this: “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.”

I’ve always given for the normal reasons: Because people need help, because I know I should, sometimes because I feel grateful and want to give back. And those are good reasons. The problem with those reasons, though, is they inevitably lead me to want to have some way to know the person or cause I’m giving to deserves it.

This verse suggests that my spirit of generosity is the thing that will keep me secure in troubled times. Times like right now, when society seems to be getting ever more violent, culture becomes ever more permissive, and the moral authority of our leadership ever more compromised. There’s a lot in this world right now that is dark.

This Psalm promises light in this darkness for gracious, compassionate, righteous people. It promises good things even in bad times for people who are generous and fair.

Could it be that simple? Instead of a grand crusade to capture political power, or to roll back the tide on moral issues, could it be that all I really need to do is be the kind of thoughtful, helpful person I want to be anyway?

Simple, yes, but hard too. This verse doesn’t say the darkness goes away, it says I’ll have light in the darkness. Still, it’s a different way of thinking about what a principled life looks like these days. And that’s a topic we should all be thinking about.