In 2004, Forbes Magazine added J.K. Rowling to the list of billionaires in the world, due to the royalties of her Harry Potter books and subsequent movies.  In 2012, the same magazine reported that she had dropped off the list of billionaires due to two factors:  Britain’s high tax rate and Rowling’s charitable giving.

Regarding her commitment to charity, J.K. Rowling was quoted in the Telegraph as saying, “I think you have a moral responsibility, when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.”

John Wesley, the founder of what we know today as the United Methodist Church, taught that “with increasing income, what should rise is not the Christian’s standard of living but the standard of giving.”

With a little research, I learned that Warren Buffet is the most charitable man alive, with Bill Gates second on the list of those who share their wealth.

It’s easy to let ourselves off the hook by telling ourselves that if we were wealthy, we’d be generous too.  That turns out not to be true.  According to Business Insider, there are 36 million millionaires in the world, with 15.3 million millionaires in the United States.

Several studies have concluded that, in general, the more money we make, the less we give away proportionately.  To say it differently, the poorer we are the more sensitive we seem to be toward the needs of others, and the more likely we are to share what we have…giving a higher percentage.

It seems there are two mentalities when it comes to money:  1) to acquire as much as possible and 2) to share as much as possible.

Honestly, I like making money, and the more I make the more I want to make.  Seldom do I stop and reflect on WHY I want more.  The truth is that I already have more “stuff” than I have room to store. (Yes, we pay a lot of money to rent a storage unit to hold the stuff that we can’t fit into our home!)  I tell myself it is my quest for the freedom to do what I want when I want.   Nothing wrong with that, is there?

But, the article about J.K. Rowling got me to thinking more about the notion of sharing, of giving.  What if a significant part of my motive for wanting to make more money was so that I would have more to share.

John Randolph Price, the author of “The Abundance Book,” teaches that the more we share joyously, the more we have.  But, here’s the catch, our giving must come from a sense of love and joy rather than as a mechanism for the Universe to give us more.

So, I leave you with several questions and an invitation:  To what extent is your aspiration to a higher standard of living or a higher standard of giving?  How grateful and appreciative are you for the material resources you now have … however great or small?

Move into your Magnificence … and joyously express your gratitude.  Inevitably, you’ll find yourself sharing … and the extent to which you do is the extent to which you’ll be able to say, “I feel good about being me!” … and that’s a promise!

Image Credit:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/photogallery/white-house-easter-egg-roll