Cheerful Giving

[rashiir]

Recently, I've been chewing on the subject of generosity. It started when I came across verse 9:7 in 2 Corinthians, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver

Comments

[anonymous]

well, one quality of god (you can agree or disagree here) is generosity/provision/love [god is love and all], and so therefore when you are truely selfless and charitable you are closer in touch with your godly qualities, and therefore closer to happiness/nirvana/heaven...

i'm struggling with the diffrence between thought and action. if i think 'wow, you're a big loser with ugly pants,' it hurts me, but does it affect my balance if i don't say 'hey loser get some new pants?' and how much, if it does?

[rashiir]

If you really think the person would be better off with new pants, perhaps you should offer to assist with that. As I understand it, God sees value in each of us, and therefore the loser bit would simply be a personal opinion, not really anything that someone could be left better off by knowing. But that's just how I see it.

Out of curiosity, who is this?

Not totally on topic...

[aconight]

We discussed this subject a lot in my philosophy class last semester. Emmanuel Kant thought that there is not only nothing wrong with doing something right when you dont want to, but that it's the only time it's truly moral. In regard to the attitude you mentioned about being motivated by personal satisfaction, he said that any good action that someone takes pleasure from is still good but does not have significant moral value. An action can only have full moral value when you go out of your way to do something you don't want to do and will get no pleasure from doing. Most of us agreed that however interesting his beliefs, Kant really had little relevance to the real world, but I like his distinction between good and morality.

Re: Not totally on topic...

[rashiir]

That's sort of how I used to feel, and in a certain sense that is true, but would't it be even better if we could learn to take joy out of helping others. That in itself is not an easy process, and takes a lot of hard work to change yourself so that what you used to hate becomes what gives you the most pleasure.

But it's not like a one step process, as I see it... I think you hate to give even a little, and then you learn to enjoy that, and then you learn to give more and more and more... Like a process where you're always building.

Re: Not totally on topic...

[rashiir]

To clarify... I agree that if someone is born wanting to do good, it's not as powerful as someone who isn't naturally that way. But if someone has taken the effort to transform themselves, then I think that is an even better thing.