Learning to Share

It takes awhile for us to learn to share. We usually need some catalyst, some person, some motivation to move us out of our greedy prisons of self-hood to share gifts we have been given. Most of the problems I see in our world come from people not wanting to share anymore. (If they ever did?) White people don't want to share privilege with black people or any people of color. Rich people don't want to share with poor people. Men don't want to share with woman. Straights don't want to share with gays.

Yes, people donate goods, services, and money. Yes, there are many people who have learned to share. But there are many who have not learned this yet...and they all seem to be running for political office. Sharing makes the world go around.

Over the years it has been my pleasure to meet a lot of people who work as bartenders and servers in the food industry. They make $2.14/hour. That's all their wealthy owners are required to pay, so they pay that, and sometimes complain about that too. Needless to say, unless somebody shares with my friends, they aren't going to last long on $15 a day. So we share with them. Unfortunately, we call it "tipping," but it is really sharing. Sometimes people don't share at all with them. Sometimes people try to share the least they can with them. That is sad. Share to make their life better, not so you can eat more or drink another beer.

The Christian Church has always put sharing as the top priority of spiritual maturity. We get it from Jesus, who begotten from God, shares the Spirit's energy and life eternal with us. So we share. Not because we want to, not even because we like to share, we share because that's how we got we have, and to not share those gifts, would be the most greedy, selfish act of all. Happy sharing!

May your tables be full and your conversations be true.