What are you cultivating?

A reflection on awareness, gratitude, and the question every generous person needs to sit with.

In the very first pages of Scripture, God places humanity in a garden and gives them a job: cultivate it and keep it. It’s one of the oldest pictures of what it means to be human – not passive recipients of God’s provision, but active participants in its growth.

That image doesn’t stay in Genesis. It follows us into every area of life, including how we give.

Over the past several years, our team at NCF North Texas has been guiding givers through a spiritual exercise called Cultivating Your Giving Journey – developed in partnership with the Eden Project. At its core, it’s an invitation to slow down and ask a question most of us never quite get around to asking: not just where am I giving, but why?

The exercise begins with awareness – which turns out to be harder than it sounds. Secular philanthropy pushes us toward visible impact and measurable outcomes. There’s nothing wrong with accountability, but for the Christian giver, something deeper is available. We have access to a voice that knows us, knows the needs of the world, and has specifically prepared good works for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). The question is whether we’re quiet enough to hear it.

The first practice in the exercise is gratitude. Before reviewing a single giving statement, before mapping a single cause or passion, you’re invited to simply tell God what you’re grateful for – and then listen for how He responds. It sounds simple. Givers who have tried it describe it as quietly disarming. Gratitude has a way of reorienting the whole conversation.

From there, the exercise walks you through your current giving – not to judge it, but to notice it. What does your giving say about what you love? What surprises you when you look at it honestly? Where do you sense the Holy Spirit most clearly present?

These aren’t audit questions. They’re relationship questions. And that’s what makes this exercise unlike anything else we’ve encountered for givers who want to go deeper.

What are the particular ways you’re partnering with the Holy Spirit to extend God’s good creation for the benefit of others?

We’d love to walk through this exercise with you. Reach out to Becky Cullum at bcullum@ncfgiving.comopens in a new tab to learn more.

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