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Giving Shows Us What We Have

Speaker
John Biggs

Affiliation

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Biography
John has loved living in Bend for the past 3 years with his wife and steadily growing furry and scaly family. He loves spending time with friends and family on Bachelor, exploring the trails around town, and enjoying Second Saturday board game nights at the east Bend branch of the library.

In terms of career, passion, and interest, he has committed his life to being available 24/7 for healing for others. He believes that healing is actually revealing what's true and invincible about each of us, and that the truth of who we all actually are goes far deeper than what worship center you go to, if any, what background you have, and no matter what's been done to you or what you've done.

He is very interested in and inspired by the focus and theme of this event, as it seems to be all about giving to others. He's not at all interested in proselytizing or even publicly talking in this arena about religion or boxed-up spirituality at all. In fact, one of the best parts of John's work with others is the opportunity to discard whatever we think separates us or defines us in terms of limits, and instead to ignite a clearer sense of who we already are, rather than attempting to fill an empty bucket.

We ignite - we blaze brightly - we see who we are - we can share with others. It's this form of giving that has allowed John to live his life.

Description
It's obvious that you can only give what you have. But often, we DO have and yet we still don't give. Why? Because we're afraid we'll lose what we have. So we pick and choose who, how, and where to give - we box up our giving into charitable donations twice a year, presents at holidays, and smiles and warmth for family and friends if we're feeling up for it.

But what if it's the giving ITSELF that reveals what we have? Not any certain kind of giving, either - certainly not everyone can give thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of hours, to charity, community, or schools. But that's not all that giving is.

Every time you give a smile to someone, every time you give someone a moment of your precious day, you're revealing that you still have that much goodness inside you. Every time you KEEP smiling and KEEP sharing your time with someone, you KEEP demonstrating that you have that good. Or what if you give trust to someone who needs a clearer sense of self-worth - gave comfort to someone sobbing on the sidewalk - gave respect to youth - gave graciousness to someone who tried to cheat you? And what you'll discover, is that this is not fluffy feel-good optimism and positive thinking. Giving - in any way - reveals who we are and shows us how much we truly have. What if we were willing to take that first step and just, at least, see?

A guiding principle of my life has been, "If you live to see what you can give, then you'll see what you're being given. If you live to see what you can get, then you'll see what's being taken from you." I'd love to explore that principle with you through some thoughts and some stories from my experiences and travels.

This talk will not be an attempt to convince anyone of anything or to try to make you think like me. That would be boring, if we all thought the same.

This talk will hopefully not be an excuse for a nap - but hey, maybe a nap is really what you need and could be the best thing I could give ;-)

This talk will be an opportunity to enjoy each other's company, to give back to the community I've loved so much, and, most of all, to invite you to give more confidently. And in that giving, to discover even a tiny bit more of how good you are, and how that goodness defines your life.

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