Quote: Originally posted by Coin Toss on Jan 27, 2007
Consider this re: Whitaker and others who have experienced hitting a jackpot being a bad thing happeneing to them:
I recently heard about this concept - it's a Jewish one - and have seen such amazing true life examples of it that I pass it on for what it's worth.
The illustration I heard went like this:
If someone came and handed you a no-strings attached £1,000,000 today, you would be very pleased. The same tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on.
There would come a time however, when you couldn't accept any more money, if you were a normal human being. Something inside would force you to say something like: 'Hey look, I can't accept any more of this money for nothing. I've got to do something for you in exchange. What can I do?'
The money you have been receiving for nothing is called the 'Bread of Shame'. Essentially, it is taking something for nothing - and the point is that such taking is damaging, if not ruinous, to your personality.
There comes a time when un-earned gifts and receipts cause the recipient to turn and bite the hand that feeds it.
It works at all levels in our lives. Children, for whom the parents do everything, and ask nothing in return, are generally obnoxious, ungrateful and unhappy.
If say a brother and sister lodge a person who is in need of a place to stay, and demand no payment, either in cash or in kind, there will come a time when that person will bite the hand that feeds it. The kind of bite will vary with the personality of the biter, but bite they will.
This is why the recipients of charity will, over a period of time, become soured and distorted personalities. The need to do something in return is a basic need of our psyche, and the inability to do something in return results in personality damage. You will find, for example, that if X has been receiving charity for some while, they actually become resentful if it stops, with such remarks as: He's /they've got plenty. Why aren't they sending the money/food/clothing/ whatever? Thanks and thankfulness go out the window.
The widow is a glowing example of the exact opposite. She gave everything she had, in return for what the Lord had given her.
It works, or seems to work that way in ecclesial life too. The ecclesia that does no preaching, for whatever reason, is almost literally eating the bread of shame. It is receiving grace and forgiveness and love from God in breaking bread, and gives nothing in return, in calling other people to the Truth. Those meetings are dull and depressing places to attend, whereas meetings who take the opposite attitude are generally warm and vibrant places. The bread of shame is distorting the ecclesial personality.
The same with us as individuals. If we have received the grace of God, and do not a. do something for our brethren and sisters and b. the poor and c. preach the word in our own little ways, then we turn the Bread of Life into the bread of shame, and end up by distorting our spiritual personalities. And who wants that?
http://www.thechristadelphians.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4672&st=0&p=129859&#entry129859
Granted Jack did give millions to a coupe of churches, but maybe proper motivation, or something we don't really understand, comes into play.