Pay “it” Forward – Our Biblical Calling

According to Wikipedia, “Pay it forward is a term for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor.”   Perhaps most of us first encountered the term in the 2000 movie “Pay It Forward” staring Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, and Helen Hunt, in which a young boy attempts to make the world a better place by repaying to others the “creative gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love,” given to him.

There is a new field of study in psychology called “elevation” in which observations are made of how people act when they are inspired or touched by good deeds of others seen or read about.  Psychologist Jonathan Haidt reported that, “Elevated participants were more likely to report especially warm, pleasant, or "tingling" feelings, [as they saw or read about the good deeds of others] and they were then more likely to report wanting to help others, to become better people themselves, and to affiliate with others.  … elevation seems to open people up and turn their attention outwards, towards other people.”

Underlying both the movie story and the psychological research perspective on “pay it forward” is a sense of gratitude that one feels for “gifts” received.  The unusual nature of “pay it forward” and “elevation” is that gratitude is expressed by giving “gifts” to others, not just back to the original “giver”. 

As I read more about these important human characteristics, I can’t help but recall the Biblical message from Luke 6:31 “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  This presage of contemporary insight into gratitude enables us to understand how God wishes us to pay His “gifts” forward. 

Yes, of course we should be grateful for all that has been given to us.  Unless you feel yourself especially entitled, you surely realize that who you are is completely a result of a large set of God-given gifts from countless people over your lifetime.   However, the lesson we learn from Luke is the importance of a “pay it forward” expression of thanks in which we do with others, that which we have appreciated ourselves – perhaps the willingness of others to befriend us, to listen to us, to accept us for who we are, to offer us the route to peace or access to joy.

Isn’t it interesting that 2000 years before psychologist Jonathan Haidt reported on the results of his “elevation” research, Jesus admonished his disciples to do more or less the same thing.  I wonder if we who sit in the pews truly understand what this means for us?

Bruce