Doing Good and Giving From The Heart

We have always known kids to be selfish ... that if you don't give them what they ask -- pronto, they throw tantrums and won't stop until  you give in. 

But there is something about kids that I like the most: when they give, they give from the heart. 

Not so with adults (of course not everyone). To a good number of grownups, "What's in it for me?" is the first thought that comes to mind when they find themselves about to part with something they possess to give to someone else. I admit, I have been guilty of this, myself, on several occasions. Thankfully, that's all been changed when I watched the movie, Pay It Forward.

I was just thinking, if only everyone, the world over, has the pureness of a child's heart, there would be none of the troubles and miseries now plaguing mankind. There would be no poverty, no hunger, no hate, no wars, no suffering, no wickedness.

Because of selfishness and greed, we have become like the beasts of the jungle who know no better than kill to survive. Such savagery, however, is understandable because these animals live by instinct not by reason, by necessity rather than want. For that reason, it could be said that mankind is worse because we are equipped with minds that could reason and hearts that could love but then, instead of being what we are supposed to be, we think and act on the contrary.

If we think about it, there is actually no reason for poverty to exist in this world. As a matter of fact, its very existence is absurd considering that the Great Creator has filled the earth with so much abundance that there is more than enough for everyone. All the inequalities, the imbalances, injustices and discriminations among peoples are the result of the evil that crept unawares into man's heart and took on the form of god by whose dictates we act and behave to our own detriment and destruction.

Imagine if everyone shared such abundance within the limits of their personal needs and not desire beyond what is needful for comfortable and convenient living, there would be no shortage, no scarcity, no deprivation. There would then not exist the great divide between the filthy rich who live in giant palatial homes with more rooms and beds than their puny 6-foot frame could occupy and the wretched poor who only have the crevices in rocks and dilapidated buildings to shelter them from the elements.

What has Solomon, the wisest and richest man who ever lived, said as he faced the reality of the "end of his days"?

"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

"So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.  I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.... So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it.... What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This ... is meaningless."

He then concludes: "Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.... I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and DO GOOD while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil -- this is the  gift of God."