By Carol Bolden
Try this experiment: while driving, do your best to keep another driver from getting into your lane. How does that make you feel? Now try looking out for the other driver, even if he’s being pushy. How does that make you feel?
In the first experiment, I can actually feel my heart closing a door. In the second, I feel my heart expanding. Do you think this might be something built into us by our Creator?
Generosity is an attribute of the God who created our beautiful earth to provide for the needs of all. Plants and animals give and receive. This mutualism, or relationship in which both species benefit, is inherent in the plant and animal kingdom. As humans, we also live in mutualism, i.e. giving off carbon dioxide to benefit plants, who give off oxygen to benefit humans. But as humans, we can make conscious choices to bless others.
We’re programmed to be generous like the God who made us in His image. And that generosity benefits us in return. Generosity lowers blood pressure as much as medication or exercise, according to one study. It also lowers the risk of dementia, reduces anxiety and depression, improves chronic pain management, and more.
The study also reported that generosity toward a spouse was linked to of a sense of marital satisfaction for the giver as well as the receiving spouse.
Generosity can also extend our lives. A study in Marin, California, found that volunteering dramatically reduced mortality rates.
According to researcher Christian Smith, feeling good is a product of doing good. It’s built into our neurochemistry. Giving makes us happy. It triggers feel-good chemicals like endorphins, dopamine, and oxytocin. Generosity lowers our stress and improves our relationships.
I came across this story of a generous, open heart that happened in Atlanta, during Thanksgiving week. A home- less man was digging in the trash outside of the Omni Hotel when he found a wallet. The man, Joel Hartman, took the wallet to the hotel, hoping to return it to the guest. The hotel management was so impressed with Hartman’s honesty that they gave him a room for the weekend, free room service, a new wardrobe, and even a make-over.
But that’s not the end of the story. When the media got hold of the story, his family, who had been looking for him for years, finally found him. And Hartman—who suffered from a medical condition—is receiving the medical help he needs.
While presumably we don’t give just so that we can receive, there is a reward in giving, whether it be a sense of satisfaction and wellbeing or even something tangible like what Hartman received. God designed it that way.
Do you consider yourself a generous person? According to author Mike Hyatt, if we want the full positive effect of generosity, we have to make it a lifestyle.
As we near the end of the year, I’m making a conscious decision to be more generous every day—with my time, my money, my resources. Won’t you join me?
–Carol Bolden provides editorial support for the RMC communication department.