Receiving and Giving

The other day I read something that surprised me. It said:

 "You can't be a good giver unless you are a good receiver."

I've thought a lot about this since I first read it and am more and more convinced of the profoundness of it. So many of us go through life thinking it is important to give to others, but being too proud to receive help from others. But the statement is correct. Knowing how to receive hleps us know how to give and the other way around. And if pride prevents us from receiving, it surely is going to taint our giving.

Think about it! If we won't let others give to us because we think it shows we are weak, or helpless, or inadequate, or that it would be a hardship on them to help, then when we turn around and try to give, even if we aren't consciously aware of it, someplace in our thoughts we consider the person we are trying to give to as weak, helpless, inadequate or that they are a hardship on us.

In addition to this, when we try to refuse a gift or act like we don't need it, we hurt the person trying to give the gift. I think we've all experienced this. We offer something and through action or words the receiver intimates, "I don't want that." or "I don't need that." And it stings! Or we give something and it is accepted, but the next day the person brings something bigger and better to us as if they need to repay us.

To live the gospel fully we need to open our hearts and be vulnerable, and one of the ways we do that is to let others help us. We need to be good givers, but we also need to be good receivers.

Giving and Getting

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he says, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). It is interesting that Paul says that the law can be described in one word and then gives a whole sentence. But I think he does this for emphasis. He uses a sentence, but wants us to understand that it is one word in that sentence that is important: love. We are to love our neighbor, but Jesus later gave a new commandment that we aren’t to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, but we are to love each other as he loved us. (See John 13:34).

One of the ways we can fulfill this commandment is to make sure that anyone we encounter goes away with a gift. That gift can be a smile, an encouraging word, having had someone listen to them, a compliment, or any number of kind gestures or words. The surprising thing is how much fun it makes your own life to contemplate as you encounter anyone on what you can give them. The real joy comes when you approach a clerk in a store or a stranger who looks overburdened or sad and smile or say something nice and then watch as their countenance changes.

 I’ve never figured out who gets the most out of this giving—me or the other person. All I know is that it fills my day with love!

Formula For A Satisfied Soul

There is an amazing promise found in the writings of Isaiah: “If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:10-11).

Most words here are translated very well, but the meaning is a little clearer when you know that in the first verse the word darkness could have been translated gloominess. What this says to me is that when we reach out to help and assist the poor and the afflicted, the Lord will heal our poverty and afflictions. But the most important promise is that when we help others, the Lord will guide us at all times and feed our hungry souls even in times of dire distress so that we won't be gloomy. His Living Waters will flow to us continually.

These verses are encouraging to me because they are doable. All of us have the capacity to reach out to others. We can give a smile, a note of appreciation, a hug, a meal, or whatever we have because we all have something to give. And in return for giving what we have, the Lord gives us more. He will “guide thee continually.” What a great blessing!