Receiving is the most exciting provision for most people, and yet the most degrading, when compared to the ability to give. Pain is always associated with giving, and yet granting the hope of receiving in the future. Conversely, receiving without giving anything promises future suffering. This brings us to two types of people, comprising what sustains this world. Valueless people are attracted to receiving, while valuable people are attracted to giving.
For a medical Doctor to earn the respect of being in that profession hard work would have been dully undertaken. But that doctor’s services would better be considered helpful, as alleviating people’s problems. Successful people are generally hard workers. Accessing large sums of money, without optimally benefitting anyone is also possible. However, wealth accumulation without accountability identifies criminals in the environment. For this world to function optimally, both giving and receiving must co-exist, as they sustain each other.
Without the existence of consumers, this world ceases to function, as nothing becomes workable. The conglomerate business enterprises across the world cannot be necessary without consumers desiring the offered products. The value of those products is sustained by the availability of those in need of products, without which, consumers would be starved to death.
Medical doctors are important people, so far as there would be sick people, in the environment. When stricken by a national disaster, the affected ones expect to be rescued by others, more than they could rescue themselves. They perish in the absence of helpful assistance from other people. This is what explains the relevance of those with the capacity to assist the needy.
From that condition can be deduced the functionality of both giving and receiving, where givers are required more than receivers. For everything to run smoothly there has to be a balance between giving and receiving. The more one gives, the more prosperous one becomes, as long as satisfying the needs of consumers.
The more one receives without giving, the more poverty-stricken the person becomes. The poverty-stricken people always include wealthy people without giving anything in return. This ensures the disastrous future of the greedy people, although they have led an ostentatious life. Poverty is generally of the mind, more than assumed to be a condition of frugal living. The combustion of fire, fueled by paper can look ferocious, but for a very short period. This is different from a fire whose combustion is from a sustainable source.
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35 NIV).
The datum submitted by the apostle Paul confirms the veracity of comparing giving with receiving. In the absence of analytical exposition, the problems of humanity continue to escalate, unabated. In perpetuating confusion, many people are attracted by receiving gifts, thereby perpetuating their poverty condition. This becomes particularly more disastrous when the corrupt justice system favours criminals, rather than the innocent.
This confirms the source of all human problems, where honest living is criminalized. Poor people carry no value, as unable to generate respect from other people. There is no provision to accommodate their acceptance in this world. The despised include those who appear wealthy but do not give anything in return. The common error is assuming that mineral resources are more valuable than the citizens of a country.
This concept alone remains ensconced in the minds of most Africans. It starts with corrupt leaders in governance, influencing the entire populace to aim at accessing the corridors of power. The purpose would be to access wealth and not to serve people. That behaviour reveals knowledge deficiency, showing that the state of poverty includes rich people in a country.
Countries like China are viewed as highly progressive. However, the global balance may include them in the condition of poverty if they take advantage of the stupidity of African leaders. The corrupt African leaders invite them to loot, where only the leaders benefit, at the expense of the entire populace. The supporters of such corrupt leaders include those assuming that the paraded mineral resources would be more important than the populace.
The artisanal miners are particularly those manipulated to their detriment. The likes of Scott Sakupwanya are shamelessly embellished with obscene titles like “Mbinga” where the entire populace wallows in poverty. Only a cursed nation celebrates such characters. This emanates from assuming that mineral resources are more valuable than humans. However, the truth ought to be ensconced in that mineral resources cannot be more valuable than human beings.
The so-called outside investors cannot be authentic, when investing in mineral resources, without investing anything in poor citizens. Good leaders focus on adding value to the citizens more than concentrating value on mineral resources. The misplaced investments could be viewed as beneficial but increasing the miserable condition of the entire citizenry. The only commendable investment ought to be proper education, without which a country is considered accursed.
There is no human being that exists without the capacity to give anything to others. Giving creates circumstances that balance the effects of giving and receiving for normalcy to prevail. In other words, the more one gives, the more one expects to receive. One is considered valuable, only when carrying the capacity to give what benefits other people, more than receiving. Without the ability to benefit other people, the person is reduced to futility. The state of futility includes those with accumulated wealth, but without anything to give.
When viewed from that angle, one observes the workability of giving being more blessed than receiving. This condition is deducible by common sense. Wealth is accessible to anyone with the capacity to give more than receive. It starts with the ability to discover one’s worth, before generating wealth. Rather than expecting wealth from others, wealth is determined by what one gives to others. There is no magic to accessing wealth, except this simple formula.
Those in desperate need of money, without giving anything, would be susceptible to being criminals. Only criminals are in the business of looking for money, more than engaged in activities of giving, to generate money. Those appearing as genuinely looking for assistance are mostly predisposed to steal for survival. This is different from those looking for money, but presenting workable programs to generate more money.
Money can be described as an idea that is backed by confidence, more than it should be limited to being a medium of exchange. Money comes one’s way, when capable of providing something exchangeable for money. The commonly considered innocent NGOs like USAID should never be regarded as good for the common people. Those organizations serve only to perpetuate the poverty status of the poor populace, especially in a poor country such as Zimbabwe.
The value of those freebies could go a long way when generating the citizens’ ability to become productive. A decent person would never feel good when receiving anything from any source without exchanging anything for it. Before receiving anything, an informed populace ought to first ask a genuine question of what the populace would be expected to give in return.
One of the standing natural laws of this world rests in giving before receiving anything. The ground has to be fertilized before it produces good vegetation, which, after ripening, dies to re-fertilize the soil. The cycle repeats itself over and over again. Where the systematic cycle fails somewhere, resulting from receiving without giving anything in return, disaster looms.
Receiving, but without giving anything in return, can only be exciting to fools, assumed to be worthless. This judgmental evaluation is arrived at by comparing such people with givers. There is no single person, created in God’s image that carries no value in this world. The value of any individual is determined by how much the person gives, enhancing other people’s lives. A person’s worth is in his or her ability to give something to other people.
In the olden days, women were considered worthy, only when able to conceive children. When unable to produce children, a woman was considered accursed. However, after Jesus, people ought to be conscious of the fact that value is no longer sustained in the ability to produce children.
There is more to life than just producing children. Women can now become capable of assuming leadership positions and being more productive than men. We currently live under the conditions of men who lack innovation. After accessing freedom in Christianity, humans are no longer identified by gender.
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29 NIV).
Having become Abraham’s seed, one ceases to be identified by gender. The intellectual capacity to reason by such people can be far too superior when compared to those limited to child production. Those people are freed beings, as to be in the realm of God. They constantly think in terms of giving more than entertaining ideas of receiving.
As long as we survive in this world, giving to receive something from others is highly recommended. However, this changes when one is in the realm of God, living without an anticipation of receiving anything from fellow humans. The prime giver is God and the prime receiver is this world. The status of that person is equated to that of God. Having been elevated, as to be in the realm of God, one thinks more in terms of giving, than entertaining ideas of receiving.
While Jesus performed miracles that produced bread, feeding thousands, His focus remained on His purpose for coming into this world. Poor people existed in Jesus’ time, just as they continue to exist in our time. Jesus was a great teacher, focused on teaching principles of Godly existence. Only His followers were expected to emulate His living standard.
Jesus never taught ideas of wealth accumulation, but the principles of God’s Kingdom. From a worldly perspective, those ideas encouraged losing everything, to attain God’s Kingdom. A person, who focuses on giving everything, acquires the promised Kingdom. Jesus was aware of those steeped in the idea of receiving more than giving so He had to introduce God’s Kingdom on a gradient.
He focused on teaching the twelve disciples, but that information was expected to eventually fill the entire planet. That does not necessarily suggest that the entire world would welcome such an idea without malice. The Book of Revelation reveals a specific number, constituting those who would reign with Him at His second coming. That Book states that Jesus would establish a worldly Kingdom for a thousand years. The principles of giving emanates directly from His Kingdom, down to the entire world populace.
The interesting scenario is that after Jesus’ one thousand-year rule, Satan would be released from his incarceration. Satan appears as dreaded by everyone, even in our time. At whose interest would Satan then be released? It is impossible to know until the truth is revealed. That Scripture highlights the fact that there would be people interested in Satan’s ideas.
Those people would be influenced to instigate a revolutionary uprising, desiring to pursue ideas of receiving, without paying anything in return. This is what triggers the fire that would then devour them. Looking at it from a distance, one assumes that a loving God ought to have helped those people to have the right mind. But the workings of God require allowing free choice from humanity.
The principle of receiving is just as good as providing happiness to some people. The only problem is that such happiness is as temporary as this world is insignificantly temporary. Currently, Satan is the king of this world, enjoying the status of being in authority.
Satan currently deceives, in the same way that after Jesus’ one-thousand-year reign, he will randomly deceive many people. Satan is God’s highly effective instrument, as unable to do anything without God’s instructions, similar to how he was allowed to persecute patriarch Job.
The idea of receiving appeals to those destined to perish. Otherwise, the entire humanity, created in God’s image is capable of choosing the offer of salvation, ahead of the wealth accumulation rather than redemption into eternal life. The path of Satan is limited to a short period but attractive to many. Blessed are the people who are aware of the idea of giving being more noble than receiving.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those who have witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. Most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope, in a simple conversational tone.
The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99
Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com for $6.99
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