Distribution of the First Fruits

How do we really give to God the first of what we have? Surely God has it in mind that our families are bound for that bounty.

One of the real challenges I have every day is converting my love into tangible things for those directly about me, particularly in view of the growing network of friends I have over social networking sites.

I know that many who’ll read this will relate, seeing that just about everyone has both ‘kin’ far away (on social networking sites) as well as significant portions of themselves invested in those immediately in their midst: family members; colleagues at work; and, finally, friends in the physical sense.

The Devotion of Our Core Energies

One thing I feel quite often is that docile tug of guilt whenever I reflect upon the use of my time, whilst having missed little though significant opportunities to invest my time better i.e. with family or friends. This, mostly, is below the discernible lack of the other; they’re perhaps not bothered. It’s just something personal for me—opportunities to further motivate me beyond those tensions that pull me into my own world.

Our core energies have to go somewhere, and presumably we’re apportioning them a place to our biggest callings first. This is the ideal.

If we have family and they’re close by—and even if they aren’t—we have a duty of devotion right there. This is something I’m acutely aware of. Complying with this duty at times, however, is not the priority it should be. These times we pray for forgiving family; their grace makes up for our ineptitudes or divergent—at times, diluting—priorities.

Goal: to Improve the Distribution of the First Fruits

Can there be a better goal in life than to do all we feel we should be doing, by doing it in ways that attracts us a feeling of shalom as we reflect later on?

The first fruits of our efforts should go to God. But in doing this, God’s having us redeploy them in love to those around us. We love God best by loving those around us.

We will derive the most amount of meaning in life when we get this right: starting with our loved ones, and then to those beyond them within our sphere of influence, we ensure our first energies are spent there. The feelings of wellbeing and the suppression of what possible guilt we’d feel otherwise powers us through those things that add to ourselves beyond what our families and those around us can provide.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.