We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give

• J .C. Maxwell

What is the place of giving in the process of receiving and becoming materially sufficient? If one were to go by ancient and age-old philosophies, the answer to this would be that it is extremely indispensable.

The wisdom in giving

All long-standing religions, philosophies and beliefs have placed much emphasis on the art of and blessings inherent in generosity. Even the Master acknowledged that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

There is a mystery involved in the art of open-handedness that only a few men understand or care to appreciate. The average man is pleased to receive value and reluctant to part with same. This is the innate base and animalistic instinct present in every being.

It is thus not too difficult to comprehend that a man who has the gift- and it is indeed a gift- to be well-disposed towards giving is one that has already risen above the ‘grab-grab’ animalistic instinct of receiving only, and now operates in the divine realm of benevolence. God himself is the greatest Giver, since we know He is the Creator and Owner of all things and no one receives genuinely without His consent so a giver is really a ‘God-extension’ on earth.

Benevolence refreshes

Take a close look into the lives of natural givers and you will find that they always have provision and find favour. This argument also applies the other way around – most well-to-do people are natural givers and have always been, even before they actually made it.  You see, it is really true after all that what goes around comes around.

Take another study into the nature of a typical fresh water river and that of a ‘dead’ mass of water like the Salt Sea. The fresh water river keeps fresh because it gives out as much water as it takes in. On the other hand, the Salt or Dead Sea water is too salty to either harbour any life or to serve as potable water to a thirsty soul simply because it only receives and never gives out.

The Salt Sea remains ‘dead’ because even though it continually receives water from several sources, it does not give out water at all except through evaporation to the effect that its waters are not refreshed through the natural give and take process.

So also it is with a greedy person whose only preoccupation is to take from others and never give; he becomes tasteless, ‘dead’ and useful for no practical purpose.

Generosity as God’s means of answering prayers

The typical giver is God’s answers to the indigent’s prayer, as He does nothing without the instrumentality of human beings. We are His arms and legs to soothe hurting and lacking souls. One of my favourite preachers in the land, Pastor Gbenga Igbafen, once said that without giving, prayers cannot be answered on earth because “it is God that stirs givers to make provisions in answers to prayers” e.g. the needs of a local church or mosque or those of a sick and indigent man needing finance for medication are all met by God through the instrumentality of the kind and generous human soul.

Is it too difficult then to conceive why God would deem it fit to bless and prosper such instruments of His will? Prophet Muhammad of the Islamic faith equally agreed that a man’s true wealth is the good he does in this world and exhorted his followers to give regularly.

Clothed in his beauty

People refuse to give and yet wonder why they lack, when God has made it categorically clear that you should give to receive and sow to reap. Check out the aura, charisma and magnetism of a giver whenever and wherever he is present. It is said that God Himself dresses every giver with His beauty and grace. A classical case is that of that enigma, MKO Abiola, who adopted, professed and lived the philosophy that the hand that gives is always above the hand that receives. This man remains the only one who has ever won a general election in our country on such a massive base without any discrimination on tribal, religious or any other ground for that matter. Everyone just loved MKO. Still doubt that the good Lord dresses and decorates the giver Himself?

An inexorable Law

We definitely cannot change God’s standards and they are that the giver shall always receive in all ramifications. Andrew Carnegie, another man who should know about the blessings inherent in giving, once said that wealth is a sacred trust, which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community. He also taught that the value of all riches, money inclusive, consists in the use one makes of them; not in their mere possession.  

Horace Traubel couldn’t have said it better when he declared that the world is cold and we ought to make it our business to build fires; for we ourselves will definitely be warmed too by such fires.

Think about it!