There was a farmer who was a premier corn grower in his community. His corn was always sweeter and better than anyone else’s, and it always won the blue ribbon at the county fair. At the end of the growing season, he would take his seed corn, the corn that would be sown the following spring, and gave a large portion of it to all the farmers in the area.
“Why do you do that?” someone asked him. “Don’t you want to keep the best corn for yourself?”
“I do it for myself,” replied the farmer. “My corn will be cross-pollinated by bees and wind from other fields. And if they gave inferior corn, mine will soon become inferior as well.”
That farmer really understood that the world is so interconnected, that whatever we do for someone else, we’re also doing it for ourselves. No action can be taken in isolation, because everything we do ripples out and has some kind of effect.
Contemporary Reading
Radical Generosity by M.J. Ryan
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.
Scripture Reading
Proverbs 11:24-25 (ESV)
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