Invest Wisely

In my book, The Energy Account Principle, I relate the concept of spending and saving energy to spending and saving money. The comparisons are uncanny and it sure helps me (and hopefully my readers as well!) to better visualize how we’re utilizing such a valuable yet intangible resource. One aspect of my principle focuses on how we make significant deposits into our energy accounts by turning our focus outward and finding intentional ways to serve others.

This isn’t an easy feat. In fact, it can take quite a bit of time, prayer, and practice to cultivate this desire and to stave off the temptation to binge-watch your favorite NETFLIX series instead of help sort canned goods at your local food pantry. Our human hearts are inclined to want to serve our own needs first. The irony, however, is that serving others DOES meet our own needs- so much so that there is scientific proof it boosts our own wellbeing. This generous investment in others is a wise investment in ourselves, too.

In an article in Psychology Today entitled In Helping Others, You Help Yourself, Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D. explains some of the medically proven health benefits of helping others:

• It has well-being-boosting and depression-lowering benefits

• It provides a sense of meaning and purpose

• It increases happiness

• It helps us regulate our own emotions

This is SO important you guys. If we dedicated half as much time to helping others as we do vegging out in front of a screen, seeking out our own accolades, or engaging in our sacred recreational activities, we would radically change the world… and ourselves, too!

“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

-Act 20:35-