To lavish
(def: bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities on).
I love the fact that God’s ways are not our ways and that the eternal mysteries of God are something that we keep learning over and over. They don’t naturally make sense to us, we can’t see them coming. In the world, we say we can’t give what we don’t have. But in God’s kingdom, there is a new way; we give and it is given to us. There is an inflow and an overflow. There is no lack. We are rich in him.
We are called to lavish our praise on to him, holding nothing back. Because, after all, what have we got to lose? What is the point in holding back our praise from God? I think one of the reasons is fear and a misinformed safekeeping of our own boundaries. David ‘danced before the Lord with all his might’ (2 Samuel 6: 14) and didn’t care who was watching.
As we pour out to him he pours into us. It is a river, a flow of fresh water, freshly received, freshly given. The Bible tells us to: ‘give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6.38). I love these pictures of overflow; these are not scant measures, but more than enough, abundantly enough: ‘my cup overflows’ (Psalm 23:5). Listen to this from Psalm 65:
You care for the land and water it;
You enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
To provide the people with corn,
For so you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows
And level its ridges;
You soften it with crops.
You crown the year with your bounty,
And your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the desert overflow;
The hills are covered with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
And the valleys are mantled with corn;
They shout for joy and sing. (v.9-13)
If that doesn’t speak of Gods abundance then I don’t know what does. He is rich in what he gives us too. I find the parable of the talents so helpful with regards to creativity. The first two invest what God has given them whether it be a little or a lot and when he returns, there has been a return. I don’t want to hide away what God has given me to use. ‘I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you’ (Matthew 25:25 NIV).
We mustn’t hide what God’s given us to use but instead to let it out, let it shine.
Once this flow is opened, it will bring refreshing to others. Let’s not hold back our love because we think there won’t be enough left for us, that is the world’s way. If we feel that we are empty or don’t have enough, then perhaps it is a gentle nudge that we need to come and sit at the father’s feet for a while.
May Sarton, the novelist, talks of this flow of life regarding her creativity. She wrote that ‘There is only one real deprivation… and that is not to be able to give one’s gift to those one loves most…The gift turned inward, unable to be given, becomes a heavy burden, even sometimes a kind of poison. It is as if the flow of life were backed up.’ (‘Real Deprivation’: May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude (New York: Norton, 1973), p. 191).
I think that the flow of life that she talks of can be seen to be this life with Christ, lavish, overflowing, ever-sustaining. May we open up the channels to let out the overflow. May we press in to know more of his abundance. May we always be ready to give of ourselves because with him the well will never run dry. A song by William Matthews captures this perfectly:
‘I’ve got a river of living water, a well that never will run dry,
And it’s an open heaven you’re releasing, we won’t ever be denied.
Because we’re stirring up deep, deep waters,
We’re stirring up deep, deep waters, we’re gonna jump in the river.’
And the deep waters speak of these eternal mysteries again, because words cannot always express all that we want to say, it runs much, much deeper.
EDIT: This topic is explored more fully in Circles: Nurture and Grow Your Creative Gift by myself, Elisabeth Pike. You can find it in my Etsy shop here.
elisabeth pike 