The Importance of Giving Yourself

Robert Lupton spent twenty years of his life directing a nonprofit organization in Atlanta that helped urban poor to live productive and self sustaining lives. He made this statement, "The greatest poverty is the inability to give." In our culture the everyday message from advertising to personal conversation seems to focus on what we can get for ourselves.

Recently I read a small book by Randy Alcorn entitled The Treasury Principal. The essence of this book for me was again the value in our lives of giving especially in the area of our financial resources.

What I am reading and experiencing is the deep sense of meaning in life that comes when we have the freedom to give in all aspects of life...time, money, friendship, etc. I like to use the example if you are a believer that one of God's character qualities is giving and when we give it is as if we become a conduit of His life flowing through us to another and in the process a deposit of that Eternal Life is left in us.

Giving is one of the great evidences of freedom in our lives. We rarely give when we operate in fear, anxiety or depresssion and yet, for anyone suffering in any of the three aforementioned conditions, giving might result in some real help when they can look outside themselves. What they may need most is a deposit of that Life into their own.

Paying it forward, giving without expectation of return, is another expression of the hope and freedom that comes from giving. I would love to hear from you about how giving has unintentionally become a vehicle of encouragement in your life.

Importance of Deep Relationships

This morning I was reading in a place that I don't usually pick up ideas for relationships, the book of Leviticus in the Bible. The passages were all about what the Israelites had to do if they sinned to receive forgiveness. What hit me was the detail of the description and the impact on me was that God wanted a continuing relationship with His people and He prescribed very specific things to be done for that relationship to be continued.

Where this took me was am I willing to go through whatever efforts it might take for me to remain in relationship with others? Will I forgive others when they hurt or offend me? Will I seek their forgiveness when I hurt or offend them? Am I willing to seek others out and build relationship even when we simply disagree or have waned in our expressions of friendship, family or love? How important are the relationships in my life?

As a male I may have fewer inclinations towards relationships than a female might but as a human being I am designed at some level to be a social being. In the cultures I grew up in relationships were often not deeply encouraged or pursued. Now as I have read this morning I am more aware of the effort and time that relationships take.

It is fascinating to me that this is the subject that brought me back to this blog after such a long time of non involvement. I truly hope that over time this will be another place to learn and grow with others as I share about relationships and as I learn from any who might read and respond.