Make a habit of taking from others

LEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s what you may have said when you read the title. But everyday I fight people who can’t receive anything. Offer to pay for lunch and they refuse as if the most grievous of all sins is to have someone render kindness their way. Is it because of the American work ethic that is so stout and pervasive? I’m gonna say no. We’re some of the most prideful people I’ve encountered in my limited travels to various countries. We don’t admit weakness which suggests that we have no need improvement. And we sure don’t accept charity which, I deduce, means that the presence of LOVE in our culture is greatly threatened. We’re one of two things from where I’m standing at 33 years old in Southern California. We’re either leeches, blood sucking parasites who take all that any fool will give us  or we are tyrants. We’re either thieving bumbs or control freaks. But there’s a middle category isn’t there?

Can’t you freely give and freely receive according to the law of genuine relatedness, the kind that does not seek to take advantage of a friend? I know good people and I know bad people. Neither fit well into the middle category because of pride and false perceptions about what you can expect from humans. But I learned something from sports and life that I’ll never forget, that sometimes you need charity and/or a gesture of kindness. No need to be intimidated by the friend reaching for his/her wallet across from you. Would you rather they reach for a weapon?

If you can’t receive gifts from people trying to give them to you, you’re as selfish as the thief. You have demeaned others and undermined the spirit God placed in us. I remember being given second chances in everything from Mrs. Zabiliski’s 8th-grade Pre-Algebra class to my college basketball squad. I didn’t always deserve the gifts but that’s not why they were given. Receiving what you don’t deserve has a way of humbling you into a paradigm of genuine generosity. It can change you from being a cancer to your team to being it’s life-blood.

The next time someone says, “I got lunch,” let ’em get it and quiet the voices in your head. No one thinks you’re a money grubbing mooch except you and that’s the person who knows the truth. If you’re a WHOLE individual, you can take and you can give. We’re all damaged a bit but the worst of us shows our wounds when we insult the efforts of others. Imagine the irony as people pray for blessings but spurn them when they materialize because, “I can pay for my own meal.”