Parakalein

I was listening to Dave Ramsey talk about “not loaning anyone money as it changes the relationship from friendship or family to debtor and debtee, “borrower is slave to the lender”.  I began to think that the wisdom of acts of beneficence are an illustration of that very point.  When I give a gift it is an act of benevolence as I do not expect it to be paid back.  When I give someone money, with the expectation that it would be paid back it is bondage, it is an act of indenture not an adventure.

I recalled a member of the church I pastored who did not want to take money form the benevolent fund because he had always been able to take care of his family.  He had had a heart attack and was in long term rehabilitation and it was creating a real strain.  He told me that the only way he would accept the money was if it was a loan that he would pay back.  I explained that it was a gift encouraging him to learn the gift of paying forward.   When he accepts the gift, it changes forever his experience and frame.  He moves out of the debtor mindset into the giver mindset.  “It is more blessed to give than to receive because to give it away changes the “paradigm frame of giving and receiving”.  In the future when he sat in church and the “benevolent offering” plate came by, he would view that opportunity to give very differently.  He had received freely so now he gives more freely. 

Maybe this is the lesson of getting out of the bondage of debt.  It exchanges the bondage of debt to the blessing of debt free loving and living. It frees us up to really give.  The freeze on giving is thawed out.

Shifting our focus to give without thoughts of what we get or what we had to give up.  True free giving.