The Power of Giving and Receiving
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." - NIV Luke 6:38
I guess I have been thinking about the power of GIVING this week because someone recently confided to me that she feels that she is not getting from life what she needs to survive on. She is incredibly lonely, broke emotionally and financially, and has lost all her friends. She feels that no one is available to her to get help from; not her family, nor her church. Even help from the medical system has eluded her. She has found no results for her chronic depression and sadness. She wondered if ending it all would be the easiest on everyone. Wow! She is stuck everywhere in her life. After asking for help, my suggestion was that she focus on giving or contributing to those around her, instead of constantly trying to get something from them. With this mindset, I believe she will she will begin to get the help she needs and will start the positive flow cycle. I will check in with her weekly to see how this is working for her.
What about the rest of us? Do you ever feel stuck? Relationships? Finances? Loneliness? Jesus words above are really quite simple yet powerful for solving life's woes of lack. Whatever we need, we must give first, or let go of. Simple? If we are feeling lonely, then we must reach out to others.... but not for what we can get from them, but what we can give or contribute to them. If we feel we are not being understood, then we must give understanding. If you are stuck in the area of money, then let go of some. Take someone to lunch or buy them a coffee. Give to the church or to a charitable organization that you feel passionate about. Get that flow going again. Do we feel stuck in a relationship? This might not mean letting go of the relationship itself, but letting go of the grudge or block in the relationship... letting go of whatever is keeping you stuck!
"But I have nothing to give to anyone! I am totally depleted of everything". Most people think that they have to get before they can give. We all have something to give... time, care, kindness, concern for another, love, money, etc. Go visit your old aunt in the care home, put an extra loonie in the parking meter for someone else, leave a tip in the Starbucks tip jar. It is with this mindset of giving cheerfully with no expectations of getting from that source, that flow comes back to us.
One son was recently in an international airport when he was informed he would have to pay an extra airport maintenance tax which he did not allow for in his student budget. His first response was resistance. Then he remembered the universal law that what we give comes back in some other form if given cheerfully. He immediately switched gears, and gladly gave the fee with a smile. If he had to pay it anyway, he may as well do it cheerfully. Within a couple of days, he received an email announcing that he was awarded a thousand dollar scholarship. Coincidence? Maybe, but I am more inclined to believe in synchronicities. We reap what we sow.
To truly understand the law of giving and receiving, we need to understand that everything in life is flow. Flow is all around us; nothing is static. All things in the universe are always flowing in circulation... rivers, oceans, electrical currents, air, rain, wind, lava, blood, thoughts, tears, energy, radio waves etc. If we begin to hoard things in life like money, material goods, ideas, or resentments, then flow stops, as there is no space for that which is new and positive to enter. To allow new into our lives, we must let go of the old.
We are in vibrational resonance with abundance through our physical acts of maintaining flow (giving and receiving) on all three planes of our lives... physical, mental, and spiritual. Remember, nothing in this world belongs to us. We will take nothing with us when we die, so we must not hoard nor hold attachments. We acknowledge that everything we have belongs to our creator when we give away or pass on a portion of it.
Giving and receiving go hand in hand. For some, giving is easier than receiving. Some find it difficult to even receive a compliment or gift, or to allow someone else to buy them a meal. When we do not receive cheerfully, then we interrupt the flow and deny the other person the joy of giving.
Giving opens the way for receiving. Some people feel that life is a constant battle, but it is actually a game of giving and receiving. We receive what we hand out. There are no failures, only feedback. This universal law works the same for the physical, mental, and spiritual sides of our lives. The more we come to understand this simple concept and apply it to all three areas, the more we come to understand that giving and receiving are the very same thing.
