Learning To Receive

It was on Christmas eve, and I was traveling on a bus to my apartment in Cavite--quite sleepy. As the bus was departing a man boarded  and starting singing a Christmas song, it was actually done quite well under the circumstances. He sang solo accompanied by an a egg shaker. After his rendition he passed out some envelops soliciting passengers a donation for the “less fortunate”. After giving a short talk about sharing the blessings with “less fortunate”  saying that those who are fortunate should share with those who have so little, he then walked back down the isle collecting the envelops.  As he was about to step off the bus, he turned around and gave a Thank You, and ended by saying, “It's better to give than to receive” and because of the giving “you will receive blessings.” 

This all started me to think: “Did this gentleman just pull a guilt-trip on me?” “If I give, will the blessings keep me safe or make my life better?  Have we misunderstood Acts 20:35?" 

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ 

Maybe the world has twisted out mental capacity to understand the last part of this verse which if I’m not mistaken taking from Matt 10:8. At a glance we can say that ‘giving’ is better than ‘receiving’, to give is the opposite of to receive, or it is not ‘blessed to receive’. And so we have that mentality that we ought to give rather than to receive, less we might not get the blessings. But if you look at it you’ll see that giving is almost the same as receiving, but because when you give you receive something you never thought u had. Simply put, you give, the other receives, and then you receive. That's what makes the giver more blessed!

The commercialized Christmas of the world has taught us to give and give, but it doesn’t teach us how to receive.  To be a gracious receiver is an art. How do you really know what the world needs? Many would say “peace” but  how can we demand that from others when we haven’t learned to know peace? We can’t change the world unless we ourselves change. 

If you think about it, if we haven’t learned to receive God’s grace, how can we show grace to others? How about forgiveness, love, humility, patience and even gratitude?  We need to learn to receive so we can give. By learning to receive from God, we in turn know how to give to others. This holiday season lets put aside the giving for a moment, and focus on receiving. If our lives change with Christ living in us, then obviously we can give the world what Christ has so bountifully given us.