There is a song I learned as I child called “The Magic Penny.” The song goes “love is like a magic penny. Hold it tight and you don’t have any, but lend it, spend it and you’ll have so many, they’ll roll all over the floor.” The Magic Penny conveys a simple truth which applies not only to love, but to time and energy as well. Some things become more abundant the more of them you give.
Your ego likes to hang on to things. It likes to regulate, control, and distribute according to its own priorities and logic. It imagines that it is the source of your love and energy and that there is only a fixed amount of each to give. Its thinking goes something like this: “I have only so much love, so I must be frugal and carefully manage how much I share.” Or it thinks, “My time and energy are limited. If I use up too much here, then I won’t have enough for over there. I must be careful and conserve.” By its very nature, your ego tends towards stinginess and arrogance. It thinks it knows better than God what you are capable of giving.
The ego does not understand the laws of the soul. The soul knows that the more you love, the more love you have to give. You’re not working off of a limited supply. The soul does not dry up. It does not exhaust itself. Only the ego, cut off from the soul and God does that. The same goes for your energy and time. You have more of both than you probably realize. When you give effort to the things of your soul you find that you have more to give. When you nourish your soul you are nourished in return.
The self-concerned ego is always living on borrowed time and energy. Its days are always numbered because it serves only itself. On the other hand, the ego that lives for the soul partakes of the wealth and eternity of the soul. Instead of living on borrowed time it lives in God’s time.