Understanding Giving

It's often said that givers never lack. I've always doubted the practicality of this assertion before now. This is mostly predicated on the principle of Karma, where we get what we give but multiplied. So, if you give to someone in need, when you do have a need, people will also give back to you.

Usually we are taught not to give with the hope of getting back. We are thought that's not true giving nor altruism. We are suppose to give because we want to alleviate people's pain and it's the right thing to do.

What I actually never quite get about the assertion is how it is givers are supposed to get back. One angle could be that those whom one has help would probably get to be in a position to offer help in return. Another angle would be to rely on mother's nature all knowing and just system to bring you the help you need from anywhere whatsoever because you've help others in their time of need.

If we are to hold the thought carried in the first angle, we will most likely only give to people who are already better than us, cos we will always ask ourselves 'what do people that I'm better than have to offer me'? But then again, what can we really offer to those that are better off that will have meaning to them?? The second angle comes across as a complete gamble on the nature's sense of Justice. But this is not the main focus of my article though

I give in little ways I can say, but over the years, I can't really say I get when the need arises. That's what I used to think. This topic actually came to me with a flurry of others while I was in church on Sunday. If you're religious, regardless of the faith you belong to, giving and kindness must be a pillar of that faith. We are usually encourage, mostly instructed by the book of our faith( in my case, the Bible) to give and not sparingly.

The pastor was trying to educate us on giving and I would like to pass a few point forward.

You Get What You Give

As an example, he mentioned a story where our general overseer claimed that at a point in his life, he was getting tons of ties and he was baffled. On thinking and praying about it, he realised it was because he was also giving out ties a lot. Armed with that knowledge, he changed and up his giving and what he was receiving changed accordingly

The Size of Your Giving Determines The Duration of Your Getting

When you plant an annual crop, you only have to nurture it for a year and it will yield fruits for you accordingly. But when you plant a biannual crop, you usually have to do more work for more time and it yield more fruits than an annual crop would. How about a perennial crop? You will work and wait a whole lot more, but the yield will take a long time to come, but when it does come, it is usually bountiful, and long lasting.

Giving works in the same way. When you give little, the rewards usually doesn't take long to manifest. But when you give a lot and large, it might take years for the reward of that kind of giving to manifest. Just as it is that it takes a lot longer time for a perennial crop to develop before flowering and producing fruits as compared to an annual crop, so it is with the magnitude of giving. Like my pastor would say, the bigger your giving, the longer the time God will take to package and refine your reward, so it's sizable enough.

Give At All Times

Lastly, it's common practice that people give what they have no need for or what they can call spare. This effectively means people give in their time of abundance, but it ought not to be so really. We ought to give at all times, in our good and bad time, in our abundance and time of need. Our giving should not be seasonal or conditional.

If you were wondering, I'm more in the school of those who believe that when you give, nature finds a way to bring you help when you need it. So, yeah.

Trust me when I say, I know these things are hard to believe or practice, but some would say they've sewn it work over and over again, and if I let my sense of entitlement to the kindness of certain people go, I can also say it works for me.

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