A book that I'm listening to had a chapter comparing gift economies with capitalism. If something is expensive, we restrain ourselves. If it is cheap, we splurge. But what do we do when an item is a gift? When the giver says - "Order what you want, I'll pay. " "Choose some fabric, I'll sew you a shirt. " Then, we again, seeing the effort of the giver, often hold back. Some of us shy away completely.
I've been chewing on this for a few days. There is something uncomfortable in receiving. A vulnerability because we can no longer be fully independent. We become interdependent. We've lost much of this art in our modern world.
I wonder if this is really at the heart of the decline of the church. Christ calls us to be interdependent. Giving and receiving as a community. More deeply, giving and receiving grace from God. Not bought with money or good deeds. Simply given. But in the receiving, we die to ourselves. We are not independent. We are not in control. We cannot claim that we did it on our own.
I think these days this is hard for us. Everything in our modern lives pushed us to be ever more independent. Even as we age and our bodies and minds begin to fail us, we move into "independent living" centers... defeated by the idea of "assisted" living.
We if we consider all of life as assisted living. Recognizing the grace of God, the support of friends and family, the very life - oxygen and water - from the earth. We are each cradled in a beautiful interdependence. Breathing in the richness of so many gifts, breathing out gratitude and life marked by service and love.
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