By: Madeline Dunham
I have always felt the warmest feeling in the depths of my being after I have given something to someone else. Whether it is volunteering my time or giving monetarily, there is always a joy associated with giving that cannot quite be compared to any other feeling I have experienced. Most of you reading this understand what I am talking about regarding encounters with giving.
A while back, I came across an article in the Huffington Post called, Giving Helps the Giver Too. The article helped me to understand that giving contagiously is universal. Karl Zinsmeister (author of the article) says that,
“[Giving] satisfies deep human needs in givers as well as opening avenues to meaning, happiness, and ways of thriving that aren’t easily located otherwise.”
Studies have shown that the happiness associated with the impulse to give is quite common. In 2008, a study was done when participants were given money. Half of the participants were told to spend the money on themselves. The other half of the participants were told to spend the money on someone/something else. There was a clear distinction between the two groups. The groups that spent the money on something other than themselves experienced a drastic increase in happiness. Concordantly, a different study explained that four out of ten households with an annual income of less than $25,000 make contributions to charity each year.
The results are clear that giving brings about an undisputed joy which is experienced universally. This still leaves me with one question: Why does this joy exist? Karl quotes a group of researchers who attempt to answer this question:
“People often say that we increase the love we have by giving it away. Generosity is like love.”
I think these researchers are onto something, but I would like to take it a step further. John 3:16 says:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Our eternity is secure because of the ultimate gift that God gave us through His Son. God loved us so much that He gave us the best gift of all. For those of us who believe that the Holy Spirit resides within us, we understand just how powerful God’s sacrificial love was, is and will forevermore be for us. As believers of the gospel, we understand the true joy and impact that can be found in giving because the foundation of our eternal life is built upon just that: a gift rooted in love. As people who seek to look more like Jesus daily, the joy we find in giving is insurmountable because as we give selflessly endeavoring to further His kingdom, we are living in the likeness of Christ.
