The Joy of Giving
How does it make you feel when you give?
This is a question that Lara, a Berkley graduate student, was exploring. To help answer that question, she decided to conduct an experiment. And so, one summer morning, she approached passersby in Vancouver, British Columbia and asked them, “Are you willing to be in an experiment?” If they said yes, she asked them how happy they were, got their phone number and told them they would be receiving a call after five p.m. that evening. And then, she handed them an envelope. Inside that envelope they found either a five or a twenty dollar bill along with a note. In some of the envelopes, the note said, “Please spend this $5.00 today before 5pm on a gift for yourself or any of your expenses (e.g., rent, bills, or debt).” On other notes, the instruction was: Please spend this $5.00 today before 5pm on a gift for someone else or a donation to charity.
That evening, the recipients of the envelopes were called and asked how happy they were feeling and how they had spent the money. It turned out, that those who spent the money on others were measurably happier than those who spent money on themselves – even though, at the beginning of the day, there was no difference between the two groups. Also, it didn’t seem to matter whether they received five dollars or twenty. The effect on their happiness was the same. What mattered was how they spent the money rather than how much of it they received.
This experiment suggests that spending as little as five dollars to help someone else can increase your own happiness. In a similar experiment of over 600 Americans, the results were the same: “the amount of money individuals devoted to themselves was unrelated to their overall happiness; what did predict happiness was the amount of money they gave away: The more they invested in others, the happier they were.” The results were the same even when taking into account differences in individuals’ income.1
It makes us feel good to give. When our Wildfire Confirmation students meet, we often begin by asking where they have experienced joy, junk and Jesus in the past week. Often times the responses have to do with school and the ups and downs of ordinary adolescent life. But one day a student said, “Oh I saw Jesus at the MacDonalds.” Oh, I said, “Tell us more about that.” She said, “There was a man there who looked hungry and homeless and so I gave him some food.” She was absolutely beaming with joy at being able to care for another one of God’s children by giving him a meal to eat.
I also noticed the joy in the air when we packed hygiene bags for foster kids and tied blankets for Camp Noah – a program for children who had been in a natural disaster like a flood or hurricane. When I helped with Near Food shelf’s Christmas give-away, I don’t know if the workers or the recipients were having more fun. The beauty of that event is that we and other congregations get to give the gifts, the workers then get to help parents pick out the gifts for their children and grandchildren and then the parents and grandparents get to give the gifts to the children. All of us get to feel good about giving and making someone else’s Christmas a little brighter.
There is joy in giving – and that joy is amplified when we do it together. That is what is happening in our Old Testament lesson. The people of Israel have gathered together and brought gifts to build a house for the Lord. This is a gift for the future – David doesn’t get to build the temple – that job is given to his son Solomon. But this is a fundraiser – to provide for that building. And yet, David acknowledges the source of all the gifts, saying, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to make this freewill offering? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. … O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.”
There are many ways that you can choose to share the gifts of money and resources that God has entrusted to you. The internet – and maybe your email and physical mailbox, like mine are full of ideas of how you can share these resources. However… be sure to check out that it is a legitimate organization. As there were in Jesus’ day – there are those who want to devour widow’s houses –there are scams out there. One of the widows in our congregation told me of how she lost a lot of money by giving her credit card to a young man who called claiming to be her grandson. She said he didn’t sound like himself. But he told her he had a cold and was in trouble – and that she should NOT tell his parents about it. She loved him and wanted to help him. But you see where this is going – it wasn’t really her grandson. Unfortunately, as we read and hear in the news, such as the Feeding our Future scam, not all of the places we can give to are trustworthy. We have to be careful to whom we give, because there is no joy in succumbing to a scam.
In contrast, your church is faithful with the gifts that you and I give. We don’t receive funds from anyone else but you and me – and these gifts allow us to pay our staff and maintain our church building where we gather to worship, learn, and do God’s work . We also share our gifts with ministry and neighborhood partners. And, like David and the people of God then, we too gather together to praise God and enjoy good food and company together in the presence of the Lord our God. – with great joy.
I hope you, brothers and sisters in Christ, like David and the people of God at that time, experience joy in giving. For God has given us today an abundance of gifts – more than enough to share. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, the gift for the ministry is not to be given as an obligation. Instead, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 And so I invite you to join me in both joyfully receiving the gifts of God and joyfully sharing them to do God’s work. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran Church + October 20, 2024 + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane
1https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_make_giving_feel_good