Receiving the Gifts of Others:  A Biblical Balancing Act 

We learn from Acts 20:35  that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”  (e.g. the giving of time, assistance, care, ideas, joy, wisdom, music, money, exemplars).  We build our benevolence programs around such Biblical injunctions.  We reach out to the needy, the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the depressed, the bullied, the old, and the lame.  Affirming this Biblical teaching, science documents that indeed as we volunteer to help others, as we give meaningful gifts, we increase our own sense of well-being, our satisfaction with life and our health.   It makes for a nicely balanced relationship that sustains everybody -- but with one important caveat.  There needs to be a “thank you” of some kind in the mix, or lost over time may be an eagerness to give “next time”.  That’s the deal.  When all the pieces are in place, it is a balanced equation that benefits us all.

But if we add the “Golden Rule” from Matthew 7:12, or Luke 6:31, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" to the mix, we can begin to look at that nicely balanced relationship equation from the other end.  Since there are both spiritual benefits and psychological well-being that accrue to the giver, we benefit from being a giver in ways that are meaningful to us.  Do we then understand the Biblical injunctions of the “Golden Rule” that we need to be a receiver of gifts at times so that others can also find the benefits of being a giver? 

Are we moved to act on the spiritual and psychological importance of allowing and encouraging others to gain the fruits of “giving” as we become receivers of their gifts?  And as we are the receivers of the gifts of others, no matter what their size or shape, do we respond with expressed gratitude – an essential component of this balancing act?

My wife often comments to checkout clerks in the stores we frequent as she notices that they have been especially helpful to another person or that they are responding to customers with a smile and good word.  But I am aware that the times she tells me what she did is when the clerk responds back to her with a heartfelt “thank you”, such as “Oh, you made my day." or "Thank you for saying that.”

As I write these words, I am thinking of how older adults tend to feel over time as they have fewer and fewer opportunities to be a giver in ways that are meaningful to them.   Yet the spiritual and psychological importance of contributing those gifts of time, talent, wisdom, ideas or knowledge, remain. 

How might we who are able, receive from them that which we find comfort in doing for them?

Bruce