Paul Poulton on having a heart to give and receive help

Paul Poulton

I used to belong to a committee who tried to help people in the local community. We suddenly had, what we thought, was a good idea, and the idea was to give certain families who were in need a large Christmas hamper full of nice food and a voucher to spend at the supermarket. We were told that there were about 30 families who needed help in this way and 29 families received the hampers with grateful and heartfelt thanks. But there was this one lady who refused to receive our gift. When she opened the door and saw us standing there with our gift she would say things like, "I don't want your charity" or, "Why have you picked on me? I don't want your help". It suddenly struck me that while it may be sacrificial to give to people, it may be even harder to receive the help. To be sure there has to be a certain amount of humility to accept a gift that acknowledges you are poor in someway and need the help of others and yet humans have been made gregarious, we need each other, God has made the world to work in that way.

I know a man who used to look after his wife who was an invalid and he always refused people's offer of help; he didn't want to seem like he was struggling. Some time after his wife had died he told me that he now thinks he was wrong to refuse people's offers of help. Was it pride, or maybe not wanting to put other people to work when they had busy lives of their own to lead? Whatever it was he regrets not receiving his friends gracious offers of help. As Proverbs says, 'It's better to receive help from a neighbour nearby than a brother far away.'

It's not always easy to receive charity, because it puts us in the position of owning up to the fact that we are not self-sufficient, that we do in fact have needs that can sometimes only be met by other people.

God has gifted people in different ways and when we all use our gifts and don't bury them in the ground, the world starts to work as God intended.

The United Nations have told us that the world's population is now at seven billion. God has created a lot of people who can all help each other. If we all do our jobs properly and use the talents we've been given then every one of those seven billion people can receive help when they are in need.

I'm not so hot at arithmetic so I'm happy to have someone help me with my accounts. I'm okay at music though and write and sing songs. I'm sometimes asked to sing at venues like prisons, schools or rescue missions where there is no money to give to me, but the Lord has a way of rewarding me some other way. You will find the same too.

Over here in England at Christmas time we usually have a bowl of nuts on display on the coffee table and we crack the nuts open while we are watching a movie or something. In March or April there's still a few nuts left in the bowl that no-one has bothered to clear away, if I break one of them open I find the nut inside the shell has gone mouldy, green and soft. It's no longer any use; it should have been used when the opportunity was there. Jesus told us not to bury what we have in the ground because it will go rotten there; it's meant to be used.

It's good to be paid for what we do but sometimes we are asked to give our services free; it's then that we're called upon not to be hard hearted but to be willing to give what we have. You will find that you are richly rewarded from some other source. Try it; it's exciting to see how God will repay you. Some people are rich and the Bible says that people are made rich so that they can be generous. I like that, we're not meant to be like Scrooge but to be open hearted and ready to give, but that means we must also be ready to receive.

I have a friend named Steve; we've known each other since we were teenagers. Steve started his own business and has done really well. I went round to see him some time ago for a coffee and a chat and as I was leaving he gave me an envelope. When I got home and opened the envelope there was £100 in it. At first I thought, hang on a minute I can't accept this from my mate, but then I thought about the fact that I need to be humble. God has made my friend rich and that's great for Steve, God bless him and make him even richer. In fact I'm thinking of popping round to see him tomorrow.