To give of yourself altruistically benefits you
Is not the heart of the Christian faith to give of yourself selflessly, for the benefit of others? Or put another way, we shall love our neighbour as ourselves.
I think it is.
There’s been plenty of research over the years that show the health benefits of giving to others and volunteering. And we already know that Christians contribute substantial “volunteer hours” to the nation’s social capital. It’s with this in view that I want to highlight a fascinating study that looks at the benefits of volunteering – for the volunteer – within the context of motivation.
The study can be found in PDF format and is entitled: Motives for Volunteering Are Associated With Mortality Risk in Older Adults
The stated objective of the study was to examine the effects of motives for volunteering on respondents’ mortality risk 4 years later. And they duly found:
Respondents who volunteered were at lower risk for mortality 4 years later, especially those who volunteered more regularly and frequently.
But here’s the interesting bit. They also found that in some cases volunteering behavior was not always beneficially related to mortality risk. Why was this?
It was all to do with the motivation of the volunteer. Is the motivation ‘self-oriented’ or ‘other-oriented’.
‘Self-oriented’ may be defined as:
We are referring to motives for volunteering that explicitly consider some personal reward such as improving one’s mood or self-esteem, escaping one’s problems, or learning a new skill.
‘Other-oriented may be defined as:
We are referring to motives that include the desire to help another person and the consideration of close others’ behavior and desires in making decisions to volunteer.
Here’s the nub of the findings:
It is important to note, however, that this study found that other-oriented motives for volunteering were associated with a significantly reduced mortality risk, and self-oriented motives were associated with a significantly increased mortality risk, 4 years later.
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We found that respondents who volunteered for other-oriented reasons experienced reduced mortality risk relative to nonvolunteers, but respondents who volunteered for more self-oriented reasons had a similar risk of mortality as nonvolunteers. This analysis clearly demonstrates the importance of motives in determining health outcomes with respect to volunteering.
How’s this for a delicious irony:
It is reasonable for volunteers to volunteer in part because of benefits to the self, however, our research implies that, ironically, should these benefits to the self become the predominant motive for volunteering, potential health benefits of volunteering may be attenuated.
It strikes me that our faith is all to do with our inner ‘heart’ and motivations, and the Bible is replete with commands such as: to give, to share, to help, to heal, to save, to do good; in fact, to go as far as:
….love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Isn’t it amazing that because of the love of God in us, and for us, we can love others, and in doing so, we all benefit.
Tags: Christian Life, Christianity, Religion Society, Theology Doctrine Philosophy