Sharing.

Sharing is something we teach our children. We're taught to share everything - bedrooms, snacks, toys, time with mommy and daddy. As we grow older, though, sharing becomes less common, and is not necessarily applauded. Because when we grow up, the things we share are more important than a fruit roll up or a Barbie; we are playing with money, with houses and designer clothes. Our own selves and families to worry about, sharing stops becoming natural to us and slowly becomes a hassle.

One of the reasons this changes as we age, I think, is that as children we are vulnerable. In a place where sharing means acceptance and intimacy with another person, it is easier for a child who has yet to form his self awareness to the dangers of the world. I often wonder what we would be like if we remained childlike in our view of ourselves (perhaps how our Father views us?). We do age, and we do change, and to share is to put ourselves out there. If I knock on my neighbors door and ask to borrow a cup of sugar, will they accept me? Reject me?

Maybe that seems like a silly example. Maybe that seems easy. Okay, so a cup of sugar is an acceptable barter - but what about something bigger? What about sharing bikes, clothes, cars, watching eachother's children...for free? Are we still talking about sharing? I beleive we are, at least, I wish it were this way.

The more we put ourselves out there, and become vulnerable to others, by offering ourselves, our things, our time to others, the more we receive. I promise you will be pleasantly surprised when you invest in truly sharing with others, not because you will expect something in return, but because whatever it was will be returned to you, in abundance and from people you would never expect.

A friend that I have shared meals with at a church outside of Uptown asked me if I had a drivers license the other evening. I responded, "Yes, I don't have a car, though." He said he was saving up for a car, and that when he got it, I was free to borrow it whenever I wanted. Laughing, I happily agreed. Once upon a time, this would have shocked me - the poor, the "vulnerable" sharing something so significant with me? Merely because I had invited him to a BBQ at my home? God has shown me and taught me this lesson enough times, though, that instead I smile and accept the reminder that I can never assume who is the needy and who is not.

Let's all help reteach the important lesson of sharing we teach children; it might just change the world. Or, at least, soften a few hearts.