The Gift in Return
What if your prayer is answered through someone else’s gratitude?
What if your prayer is answered in the hands of the very person you just helped? This morning’s musing begins with spinning tires, a muddy rescue, and a quiet question from Spirit. We often give out of love, but what happens when the Universe asks us to receive? What if saying yes to a gift is part of your own healing?
This morning, just as Mike was heading out the door for work, we heard the sound of spinning tires. A truck driver, ignoring the NO TRUCKS sign, had gotten himself good and stuck - mud sucking at his wheels like quicksand. He tried backing out, which only made it worse. Mike was already running late, but without hesitation, he turned around, hooked up his winch, and like magic, pulled the man free.
The driver was overwhelmed with gratitude. He offered Mike a hundred dollars. Mike declined. Of course he did. He always does. Because that’s who Mike is.
If he only had a nickel to spare and thought you needed it more, he’d give it to you - no questions asked. He’ll lend his time, his tools, his strength, his whole damn back, and never ask for a thing in return. And still, it seems like the universe rarely throws him a bone. Just when things feel steady, something breaks. Something falls apart.
It got me thinking… Why is that?
And then this question dropped in like a whisper from someplace higher: If you help someone in need, and they offer you a monetary reward, would you take it?
The instinct is to say no. Because we’ve been taught that true giving is selfless. That it’s better to give than to receive. That what we give will come back tenfold.
And so we give.
We give our five dollars to the man on the corner. We slip it in the collection plate on Sunday. We show up with good intentions, hoping that the universe is keeping score.
I call it the 5 for 50 Act of Kindness: Give five. Wait for fifty. We might not say it out loud, but somewhere inside, we’re watching and waiting for the return. And when it doesn’t come, we wonder why. We wonder why we aren’t deserving.
But what if we’ve misunderstood the entire flow? What if we’re missing the moment the blessing arrives, simply because we’re too focused on how we think it should look?
We say no to the hundred-dollar thank-you.
We say no to the outstretched hand.
We say no to the exact thing we’ve been praying for.
Why? Because we have convinced ourselves that receiving is somehow unholy.
But being Christ-like isn’t just about giving. It’s about grace. About presence. About allowing ourselves to be held when we’ve spent our whole lives holding others. People offered Jesus shelter in return. They offered him meals. They threw money at his feet. It was collected by his disciples and used to fuel his mission. It wasn’t asked for, it just came - as a reward for his good deeds.
Maybe we’re not meant to give so we can earn a blessing. Maybe the giving is the blessing. And maybe the receiving - the quiet, humble, tender act of receiving -
is where the real transformation happens.
Because let’s be honest, it is easier to give. Giving gives us control. It keeps us on the high ground. Receiving? Receiving requires vulnerability. It asks us to admit we need. It asks us to open our hands. And trust.
I’ve learned through years of watching, doing, stumbling, and listening:
Helping someone doesn’t always look like pulling them out of the mud. Sometimes it’s a soft smile. A kind word. Sometimes it’s bending down to pick up what they dropped. Sometimes it’s grabbing their arm when they step too close to the ledge. Sometimes it’s saving them from a runaway train— literally or figuratively.
And sometimes, it’s receiving the help you didn’t ask for - the folded up one-hundred-dollar bill, the act of kindness, the grace disguised as a gift.
So, yes, GIVE. Give with joy. Give with love. Give without expectation. But when the moment comes, and grace finds you in your hour of need - RECEIVE. Receive with the same love. Receive with open hands. Receive with wonder.
Because the miracle you’ve been praying for might just arrive in someone else’s thank you. And all you’re being asked to do is say yes.
So, now, answer this: If you help someone in need, and they offer you a monetary reward, would you take it?
What a great look into this. I would take to hundred. I've learned in my travels that interactions like these sometimes continue to move forward. That hundred may end being used for something throughout that days interaction. I've also learned that sometimes, because of receiving, it then opens another set of synchronicities.
I like the question you raised and described about becoming stuck in a giving only mindset.
Very nice article ✌️