13 minute read

The Hand That Gives Gathers

The HAND thatgivesGATHERS

n n n IT WAS NEAR MIDNIGHT as an older AfricanAmerican woman stood on the side of an Alabama Highway trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had broken down and she was desperately trying to flag down some help. A young white man stopped to help her—generally unheard of in the deep South during the tension filled 1960s. The woman said she was not concerned about her car but asked for a ride to a nearby hospital. Kindly, he drove her there. Before parting, the woman thanked the man and asked for his name and address so she could thank him more “formally.” A week later there was a knock at the man’s door. To his surprise, a giant combination console color TV and stereo record player was delivered to his house. This note was attached:

“Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes but my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband’s bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others. Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.”

That dramatic story illustrates a natural law of giving and receiving. It can be restated this way: the good you do comes back to you. The law of giving and receiving is much like planting spiritual seeds which will eventually sprout, grow and bring back an abundance of blessings.

This law of nature has been recognized by many poets, writers and philosophers. The Roman poet Lucius Annaeus Seneca wrote: “He that does good to another does good to himself.” French author Victor Hugo wrote: “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.” An old English proverb declares: “The hand that gives, gathers.”

Consider this example of the law of giving and receiving. Eve Gordon had difficult duty as a nurse on Christmas Eve, 1940. She was a special duty nurse at a London hospital where she was assigned to care for a desperately ill German student from a nearby college. The young man had contracted pneumonia and was in critical condition. Staff physicians held out little hope for his survival. The student, aware of his perilous circumstances, pleaded with the nurse to keep him awake saying: “If I go to sleep, I’ll never wake up.”

Throughout the long hours of the night, Gordon kept her patient from drifting off into sleep. She sang to him every Christmas carol she could recall from memory. Whenever her patient seemed on the verge

of falling asleep, she gently shook him back to consciousness. As Christmas morning dawned the student was still alive and able to celebrate the day. As the crisis of the night passed, the young man gradually became better and was released from the hospital.

Several years passed and Britain, as well as much of the world, was engulfed in World War II. Gordon was now a medical doctor and had been conscripted into the service of her country. Because she was fluent in Norwegian and was a skilled skier, she was placed as a secret agent in Nazi-occupied Norway. One morning she, along with scores of other Norwegian civilians, was arrested by German occupation troops who had been tipped off that one of them was a secret British agent. Knowing her true identity and mission would be discovered, Gordon prayed that death would come quickly and that she would not be subjected to torture.

Gordon was brutally shoved into a small room where she faced her interrogator, a Nazi soldier. The man reached for his sidearm. “My prayer is answered,” she thought. Then, their eyes met and there was surprise at their mutual recognition. The German student and the English nurse were face to face again. Replacing his gun in its holster, the soldier pointed to the back door and simply instructed: “Go. I give you back your Christmas.”

Another example of the law of giving and receiving comes from a woman who wrote to advice columnist Ann Landers. Thirty years earlier the woman, her husband and children relocated to another city in New Jersey where her husband had a job waiting. Just as the family moved in, the employees at her husband’s new company went out on strike. When the husband went to pay the monthly rent to their new landlord, a man named Mr. Kirby, the landlord told the man he did not need to make the payment. Mr. Kirby had heard of the company strike and told the man to delay rent payment until the strike was resolved. “What a comfort it was to meet such a caring person and a stranger at that!” the woman wrote Ann Landers.

Recently, that woman’s daughter, now grown and a nurse for an eye surgeon called her mother saying: “Mom, you’ll never guess who I had for a patient!” It was Mr. Kirby, now 89 and extremely nervous about having eye surgery. The nurse told him who she was and expressed profound appreciation for his help to her family during a time when they were financially desperate. Mr. Kirby remembered the family. “Needless to say, she gave him special attention, and I’m sure she was a comfort to him. When he left, he told her he had been treated like a king,” the woman explained. “Isn’t it amazing how God took a small act of kindness and arranged to have it paid back after so many years?” she added in her letter.

Still another dramatic example of the principle of giving and receiving comes from earlier in this century. Tom R. Kovach tells of his grandfather, who was mayor of a rural village in Hungary. It was an unsettling time in that part of the world and the first world war would soon ignite. Several soldiers in the village, agitated by the undercurrent of unrest, took their anger out on the only Jewish person in the village. The man had a small general store and the soldiers entered harassing the owner. Words quickly became heated and the soldiers threatened to kill the man. He dashed out the back door and raced down the street to ask refuge in Kovach’s grandfather’s house.

The armed soldiers came to the elder Kovach demanding he turn over the man. The grandfather refused. The entire Kovach family was terrified. However, the grandfather

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FALL IS NEAR ~ A HOMEOWNER CHECKLIST

With summer coming to a close and fall just around the corner, now is a good time to start thinking about your fall maintenance and homeowner checklist. We’ve got you covered. Here are some fall “to-do’s” you can start checking off your list!

With summer coming to a close and fall just around the corner, now is a good time to start thinking about your fall maintenance and homeowner checklist. We’ve got you covered. Here are some fall “to-do’s” you can start checking off your list! Clean the Gutters Leaves don’t only cover your yard; they will likely get caught up in your gutters too. Making sure you clean your gutters to rid them of any buildup will help ensure that your exterior won’t suffer any water damage. So, clear those gutters so water can flow smoothly to keep your home safe from any damage. Change those batteries! Check Safety Devices such as CO2 monitors & Smoke Detectors to make sure they are working properly and change those batteries. This should be looked at at least once a year for your families safety. It’s also a good idea to check that your fire extinguisher is not expired.

Dust & Clean your Windows & Blinds

As we get excited about the cooler nights and mornings, opening our windows is always a breath of fresh air. Now is a great time to dust all the pollen and dirt off those windows & blinds to avoid allergens and allow you to fully take in the fresh breeze! Maintenance the Lawn Equipment Make time to service your lawn equipment. Check the oil, clean the grass out, dust those babies off... After all, they have put in a lot of long hard hours this summer and are ready for some love! You will not only extend the life of your machinery by regular maintenance it is also nice to know your equipment will be ready to rock and roll next spring.

Schedule your routine HVAC system to

be serviced Don’t just go from AC to Heat in a matter of a weekend. Prolong the life of your vital mechanics by scheduling a clean, check and tune up of your HVAC system as the seasons change over. Don’t forget to get a sticker with service dates marked. Not only does it keep you on schedule but buyers love to see regularly maintenance mechanics when they are searching for their next home. Change your filters! Not only your HVAC filter but think water filters, Dehumidifiers, lint traps & laundry filters.

Stack or replenish firewood for all the

upcoming cozy nights In Wisconsin we never know when those cool nights are coming and from year to year we always seem to be shocked by our first freeze. A warm fire hits the spot but don’t be caught off guard.

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stayed firm declaring the man was under his protection. Holding a wooden chair in his hands, he told the soldiers to leave. It became a frightening standoff. “Grandmother sent my father, who was eleven at the time and the oldest of the seven children, to get the village priest,” Kovach said. With the priest’s arrival, the tension was defused. Both the priest and the storekeeper thanked the elder Kovach for standing up to the soldiers.

“Several years later, my father wanted to emigrate to America to find work and help support the family back in Hungary,” Kovach explained. However, at the passport office his father learned he was just a few weeks over the legal limit to make such a move. The government was preparing for the onset of another war and was refusing passports to those who might be eligible for a draft. “But the man in charge at the passport department was a recent college graduate from my father’s home village. He was, in fact, the son of the Jewish storekeeper my grandfather had sheltered from the soldiers. While the clerk looked over the application, my father’s heart pounded. The young clerk only smiled. Then, he stamped an approval on my father’s papers.”

One who believes and appreciates this principle of giving and receiving is best-selling author and physician, Deepak Chopra, MD. He explains it this way: “Nature is constant flow. To allow wealth and happiness to enter your life, you must not impede the dynamic interchange between you and the universe. When blood stops flowing, it coagulates. If your only intention is to hold onto wealth—to hoard it—you stop its flow into your life. Giving begets receiving. Philanthropy is more than a good tax strategy; it respects the law of giving.”

When he was starting out as a radio disc jockey in Columbus, Ohio, Les Brown would often stop at nearby Grant Hospital after work. He had volunteered to visit the hospitalized. There he would speak with patients and read Scripture to them. “It was a way of forgetting about my problems and being thankful to God for my health. It made a difference in the lives of those I visited. One time it literally saved my life,” he said.

In one of his on-air editorials he had offended a local rock music promoter. That man took out a contract on Brown’s life. After a late night shift at the radio station, Brown returned home around two a.m. As he was about to enter his house a man came out of the darkness asking: “Are you Les Brown?” Frightened, Brown responded, “Yes.” The man in the darkness said he had been contracted by the promoter to kill Brown. However, the man did not cause Brown any harm and explained:

“My mother was in Grant Hospital and she wrote me about how you came in one day and sat down and talked to her and read Scripture to her. She was so impressed that this morning disc jockey, who didn’t know her, came in and did that. She wrote me about you when I was in the Ohio penitentiary. I was impressed with that and I’ve always wanted to meet you. When I heard the word out on the street that somebody wanted to knock you off,” he said, “I accepted the contract and then told them to leave you alone.”

The idea of giving and receiving helps nudge all of us to have soft hearts and open hands. It is true, what goes around comes around and the good you do comes back to you. A better understanding of this principle should motivate all of us to be more generous and compassionate and to share more willingly from our resources, time and talents. n

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