A few years ago I was given a very pricey bottle of scotch. It was an unexpected surprise that threw me off a bit. So I called the friend who gave it to me to see if it was a mistake. “Do you know this is a very rare and special bottle? It’s super expensive. Do you want it back?” I asked. He didn’t. He wanted me to have it. So there it was, a bottle of fine whiskey worth more than most things I owned. For a time I didn’t touch it, it was too good to drink. Then, on a few occasions I would taste only a bit, and leave it on my shelf. And so it sat.
Have you ever wanted something very badly? A nice thing like a car, a house, a job, a paycheque, or vacation? Our desire for nice things may drive us to gather what we have, and to hold onto them. But there is a strange twist to these desires. The more we get, the more we want. The flame of desire is not lessened once we have the thing, it is fueled and burns hotter. Soon we want more. We may even sacrifice great things in order to collect more of them. Nice things are not bad to have, but the desire for those nice things, and what we do with those nice things, are what determine the joy we have in them.
Sitting on the shelf, my fancy bottle of unused scotch eventually lost its appeal. So, one evening I had some neighbours over and I decided to share it. Together we ooh’d and ahh’d at it. We enjoyed it together. Hundreds of dollars of fine scotch sipped by a few friends. Here’s the interesting thing: I did not feel like I lost out, the bottle was always a gift from the start. I thought it was just mine to hold onto, but it never was. What I learned was that by sharing this nice thing, I was able to actually enjoy it.
Nice things, I am learning, are best enjoyed with others. Years ago some friends of mine renovated their kitchen, they said they wanted to do this because they hoped to entertain more people. About a year after their big renovation I asked how their kitchen was working out. Sadly, they said, they had not used it even once for anyone but themselves. Their dream of using their nice things to connect with others and enjoy life shrunk. They forgot. But our story can be different.
So what do we do with the nice things we have? What do we do with food in our fridge, an evening that’s wide open, a car we don’t use very much, our a cabin in the woods, or a skill we have? Perhaps we put our nice things to good use, to bless others, to make connections, to heal something or someone who is hurting, to grow in character, and to love those around us. Nice things, we might say, do not make the Good Life, but they can become a fuel for the Good Life. They can be given as gifts to be shared with others.
When we give away what we have with joy, we start to see that everything we have is a gift from the beginning. It was always a gift meant to be shared. Generous people never run low of things to share, they will always find something else to give, because they have discovered the joy that comes from giving and sharing of what they’ve been given from the start.
