Growing up I always hated it when people said it was better to give than receive. I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t feel it and it certainly did not make sense!

Well, that was until I changed my perspective on giving. I always use to give to see what I could get back. I heard preachers talking about the laws of sowing and reaping, kind people saying if you do a good deed it will come back to you. Even all the Hindu’s who I went to high school with talked about a thing called Karma! However, I remember one day when I had completely burnt myself out and questioned whether I even wanted to continue living a life of faith let alone be in church ministry that my perspective started to change!

I had been through a tough season in my life that had caused me to feel ‘used and abused’. I had felt that people who I saw as peers and leaders had got all they could out of me and I was no longer any use because there was nothing left in me. I had burnt myself out due to trying to please others with the hopeful prospect of them doing a good deed in return. I thought to myself, why care about anyone else!

As I lifted my head from my self-absorbed state I started to see others who were in the same position I was in. They had been drained of all their energy and resources and no longer had anything to give. They had so desperately tried to help others that they now became ‘useless!’

This changed my perspective on life and on leadership. In one of the worst lows of my life I started to see life in a clear beautiful light. I realized I had a choice like everyone else and I was going to make sure my life walked the path of the right choice.

These were the two choices I realized I could make:

1. View others with the eyes of ‘what can I get out of them to improve my prospects in life’,

or

2. View others with the eyes of ‘how can I help this person fulfill all that they have to offer in this life’.

I have chosen option number two and it has amazed me how my life has not only changed but improved. My life is slowly not about ‘Alex Penduck’, but about helping others find purpose and significance in their lives. In return I have found purpose and significance!

I now realize it is better to give than receive. When you give out of a totally selfless heart just so others can find definition in their lives.

I was never an environmentalist! However, if I had a choice between becoming a wood chopper and a tree planter I’d choose to be a tree planter any day of the week. Creating new life is way better than working to enhance my own life!

Are you a giver? Do you view people as a way to enhance your own life, or do you choose to be a giver and help others find life and fulfillment?