According to the Cleveland Clinic, giving releases feel-good chemicals in your body like serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin, lowers blood pressure and reduces feelings of stress and anxiety.
That’s good news. In addition to giving being a spiritual act of worship, we can also feel good about giving to others and our acts of generosity because they improve our health!
There is a story in the book of Acts that provides a challenging perspective on giving. Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. A man, lame from birth, had been brought and laid at the gate of the temple, as a good place, to ask for help as people came to worship. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter invited the man, “Look at us.” The man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.
Isn’t it true that too much of our giving is not personal? We give but we don’t connect with the ones or the causes to which we give? Giving the man his total attention, Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but such that I have, I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Then he took the man by the hand and raised him up and the man walked. and entered the temple with them.
We could reflect with excitement about the healing, but I simply want to focus on the brief word of Peter. Did you note it? “Such as I have, I give you. One big lesson here is this. God requires of each of us such as we have.
I believe the kind of giving that “lowers blood pressure and reduces feelings of stress and anxiety,” as the Cleveland Clinic claims, is connected not only with our money, but with our time and attention. Peter had no money to give the beggar, but healing came as he focused his eyes on him, giving him time and attention.
As humans, time is our common commodity. “Such as we have”…we all have time. The question is our use of it. I doubt there is any area of our lives that we are stingier with. Time is connected with attention. We can give people our time without giving them our attention. Peter asked the beggar to look at him and they focused their gaze. Peter gave him his attention. Healing, comfort, strength, reconciliation, and guidance comes to others when we generously give them our time and attention. That kind of giving is good for our health.