It’s better to receive than to give.
No, no! That’s not right. It’s better to GIVE. Everyone knows that. It’s even in the Bible, right? One of the Big TEN Rules? Well, at least my mother always told me so, especially when she wanted me to shut up and let my sister have whatever she squawked about.
My younger sister right now is in need of help. She hates to ask for help, even and especially from those she loves the most. We laughed and remembered when:
-we had to apply for social welfare for our mother’s continuing care—WELFARE being a shaming word, as is needy
-we insisted we could tie our own shoes (I can do it myself!) and were furiously insulted when Dad just snatched us up and tied the freaking shoes himself
-I swam out too far in the ocean and struggled to get back to shore when a lifeguard swam out to my rescue—SAVED & HUMILIATED
-we had to share toys that were MINE, MINE, MINE—NOT YOURS
-we together created many a glorious game to play with joy—still do today.
The garden in Gethsemane wasn’t easy for Jesus either. It was a big ask, remembered in the gospels as the place where Jesus knelt in fervent prayer alone through the night, sweating out a huge dangerous decision, one that could cost him his life—all this while his naive disciples fell asleep. He prayed: “Abba, you have power to do all things. Take this cup from me. Yet let it be your will not mine.” How hard it must have been to beg for his own life, to let his own will be known, to ask for a way out, to be that vulnerable.
Ask and you will receive, he had taught. He asked and received only enough inner strength to follow through with his plan to confront political and religious authorities with their, yes, patriarchal greed and power abuses, and then to die for his vision of a just and equitable society—sacramentally embodied in Eucharist and metaphorically in the biblical story of feeding thousands with limited resources.
Ask and you shall receive.
Jesus is remembered as saying in the famed Sermon on the Mount. ASK comes before receive. When you ask it’s a good idea to have someone you trust at your side, partly for support, and mostly to make sure you don’t lose heart. When you give let go of smug pride and control. When you receive, don’t say you don’t deserve it, just say Thank You.
So my sister asked, and I cheered, and we both prayed.
Here is her GoFundMe link; https://www.gofundme.com/f/laurie-help-me-chew-again And below is her statement. Anything will help. Thank you.
I am 79 years old, and I cannot chew. I have no teeth. I need good dentures. My overall health is jeopardized by poor nutrition, not to mention my appearance. My jawbone is receding rapidly with age, so that before long it will not be able to hold new dentures, making the need urgent. My oral condition is the result of an invasive and progressive bacterial infection I contracted in the early 1990s that attacked my mouth. Medications did not arrest it in time to save my teeth. I lost seventy pounds, so my present dentures have lost their ability to fit snugly or stay in place and are now too painful to wear. My income is below poverty level, and my two small jobs are gone. I have visited several dentists and have secured an estimate of $4,000 for a new set of dentures. I could finance these, but there is a 25% interest charge so I would have to pay almost double the initial cost. Thank you in advance for any amount you are able to contribute to help me out. I so appreciate your prayers as well as your generosity. Send check to Laurie Barnhart, 441 Dowd Avenue, Canton, Connecticut 06019.
When we relinquish our familiar habits of mind and all clichés, there is equal joy in giving and in receiving.
No comments:
Post a Comment