Yesterday a reader asked a great question for here in the holiday season; “If my spiritual gifts are mercy, knowledge and maybe another gift or two, would that mean that I would be perfectly happy giving until I’m totally bankrupt financially?”
No – if your gift is mercy you will want to manage that gift wisely, meaning you have to have resources to continue giving. If you kill the golden goose (bankruptcy) you will lose the joy of using your mercy gift. Think of yourself as a garden hose. If you just give away the water currently in the hose you will quickly become useless for your intended purpose. You must be connected to a faucet that is exploding with new water in order to continue pouring out pure clean fresh water on the giving end.
So the best thing you can do to continue enjoying your gift of mercy is figure out how to have an inexhaustible supply of money.
“Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” — John Wesley
Tags: bankruptcy, finance, give, john, wesley
Dan Miller's Blog 
December 5, 2009 at 9:55 pm
This article speaks so much to my past. I too have the gift of mercy and love to give. I didn’t give myself into bankruptcy but my giving did contribute to the Debt Snowball I’m working on now!
Working the Dave Ramsey plan has been a big help. And getting advice on my business matters from 48Days is helping as well.
Gina
December 20, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Wow, this hit home with me Dan. Perhaps most of us who serve in church related or ministry focused careers use up the water in the hose, then wonder why we are broke and tired. Other times, even with faucet on, we tend to crimp the hose but try to use it anyway.
Thanks for your insights.
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
January 25, 2010 at 12:45 am
This is really awesome. I totally agree. I am checking out more of your blog … good stuff so far.