On Giving and Receiving

I keep finding it quite amazing how I write about something or journal about something and then in the next few days, months, or whatever, situations keep coming up or topics keep being discussed in my presence about the same issue I have been thinking about and usually analyzing. Yesterday’s sermon from Pastor Julie was largely alluding to what I’ve been marinating on lately. Then, as we listened to chapter 26 of “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis at Life Group tonight, which was mainly about Unselfishness and the disillusion we humans often get of it and things of that nature, I realized how much it had to do w/ the same thing I’ve been mulling over. A while back I was journaling about the phrase, “It’s better to give than receive,” and tonight just furthered and deepened my analysis and convictions about the complexity of this phrase and everything that goes into it.

“To know as we are known.” When/If we come to know (or understand, comprehend, begin to see) ourselves as we are known by our Heavenly Father, we would realize how beloved we are and see how beloved others are as well. We would realize how much love there is to give and receive, receive and give—though we say it’s far better to give than receive. Or, do we really mean to imply that it’s far easier to give than receive? Isn’t that true? Especially pertaining to our relationship w/ God in most respects, though I will clarify what my good friend Tiffany brought up in Life Group that it doesn’t really apply well being far better to give God the things which we hold so tightly onto, but more to those things which we feel we are willing to loosen our grips from. I definitely want to acknowledge that fact, but you will see that I am mainly speaking about our underlying intentions of giving to others, which was beautifully illustrated in half of a sentence by Lewis—or rather Screwtape—in the reading tonight: “…teach a man to surrender benefits not that others may be happy in having them but that he may be unselfish in forgoing them.” Basically, our supposed unselfishness in “giving into others wishes”—thereby seeming unselfish—is actually very selfish at heart bc the intentions in our action of “being unselfish” was so that we might gain praise or admiration from others for being so unselfish, which is in and of itself selfish.

Now that I’ve stated that little tidbit I will begin to share what I wrote down a couple of weeks ago while journaling about this topic.

It’s so much easier to “give back” to God by doing mission projects, “giving Him praise and thanks,” tithing (“giving back a portion of what has been received”)—though this is also very debatable as to the easiness of doing so, but all these are empty! They are all empty bc of the last parenthetical quotation. How can we “give back what has been received” when we haven’t ever experienced the Grace that is continually being given freely? When we realize that we cannot begin to “give back” an iota of what has been given, only then will we be able to receive—truly receive—what is always being given. This enables us to give up the illusion that we can come even fairly far away from “paying Him back.”

Even further, how will we know what to give others when we’ve never received anything of worth to be given? We continue on and give a whole lot of nothing, expecting to receive something in return. Yet, all that is given is also nothing since something was expected. When we give in order to receive, there is an emptiness that is left that we claim is our right to be filled back up from the one we gave to. In other words, we give so that we have something over the other person and can claim he or she is indebted to you. We all walk around empty from giving so much. We walk around empty bc we have refused to receive from the Giver of All Things. When we learn to truly receive, we can only then be able to truly give. Therefore, should the saying go, “We must truly receive from Him, in order that we may be able to truly give to them?” (I know that’s an extremely cheesy way of putting it since I went w/ the rhyming way of saying it, but sometimes it works better for memory purposes. Nevertheless, an apology for cheesiness is in order and I give it to you.) The emptiness that would be there and claimed as a debt to be owed by another is continually being filled back up by the One who has, is, and forever will be filling up what is lacking—the Fulfiller of All. It doesn’t have to be filled up by someone bc it already has been by the One.

Giving w/out expecting to receive anything in return is what Love is. That’s who Love is. Love—the True Love—has no strings attached and gives freely, continually. To know Love is to know how to truly give. To “give ourselves to God” really means to fully receive what is being given. We are given a glimpse of who we are when we receive from He whom we are from and who gave, gives, and promises to forever give us life in its fullest!

So, I guess my prayer for all who read this is that you will begin to truly and fully receive the grace and mercy that is continually being given from the Giver of All Things in order that you may be able to truly and purely give to others w/out expecting anything in return since the debt has already been paid from He whom we are truly indebted to.