As we navigate the Christian life and seek to follow the teaching of Scripture, we often are faced with what seems to be paradoxical teachings. For example, the Bible teaches that the first shall be last, suffering leads to glory, the poor in spirit receive the ultimate riches of the kingdom, etc. These apparent paradoxes beautifully draw our attention to the counter-cultural nature of the Christian life. Living like a Christian stands out against the way the world lives. It is counter-cultural. One of the clearest (and yet often undervalued) counter-cultural teachings is the paradoxical lesson that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). We are taught to rejoice and be happy over what is given to us. How many times and opportunities are we asked about what we received as gifts, or what we ourselves bought? We are trained to pursue the accumulation of wealth…