Tuesday, January 20

In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
—Acts 20:35

For the last two years of my high school education, I attended St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Virginia. It was, and is, an all-girls school. We had to wear uniforms, go to study hall every night, and attend chapel twice a day. Although some of my friends at home thought I had gone to prison, I loved every minute of being at that school.

At St. Catherine’s, I made new friends and was exposed to bright and capable teachers, but I think the most important factor for me was the consistency of daily worship, something new to me. Each morning and evening we gathered for prayer, using The Book of Common Prayer. 

And at each of those services we repeated the school motto:  “Help us, O Lord, to remember, through the example of Jesus Christ, that what we keep we lose, and only what we give remains our own.”

We said that prayer over and over and over. Today, almost fifty years later, I realize what an impact that prayer has had in my life.  The words come back to me in the oddest times: not only when I am asked for donations to church or community organizations but also in small daily ways, and not only in money matters. 

Giving IS better than receiving when we give as Jesus did, not looking for reward or compliment, and certainly not with expectation of being “repaid.” Giving in order to receive is not what this kind of giving is about.

Help us, O God, to remember, through the example of Jesus Christ, that what we keep we lose, and only what we give remains our own. Amen.