Overflowing Goodness

Have you read the gospel reading for today yet?  If not, pause everything and treat yourself to five minutes with Luke.  I love this particular passage:

Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.

Honestly, it reminds me so very much of something my parents taught us frequently when we were growing up -- and perhaps you've even heard me say it here in the past -- "Always err on the side of generosity."

So simple, and yet so difficult.  If you can find a way to say, "yes" to someone, do it.  Stop worrying about the time it will take, the compromises you will have to make, what it will cost you personally.  Stop asking yourself, "What's in it for me?"  And yet this portion of Luke assures us that in the end, what we do to help and to love and to encourage others will indeed come back to benefit us in the end.   I love that very visual picture he paints for us, "packed together, shaken down, and overflowing" -- as though there's no possible way to fit in even one tiny little bit more of the goodness we're being offered into our hearts.

Lately, my life is in that "overflowing" phase.  I'm not sure what I've done to deserve any of the countless blessings that are being showered upon me.  Realizing this makes me want to look around me and give more.  The true challenge is keeping my radar tuned in the midst of so much business, so many expectations, and even so many great opportunities, for that one person who is in need of the measure I am able to pour out today.

Do you find it easy to "give", or are you burned out from giving too much?  How do you find the balance in your life between being generous and being taken advantage of?