Awhile back I was nearly destitute. I’d recently left a job with a steady paycheck, had no savings and was self-employed. It takes time to build income as a self-employed person and it hadn’t been more than a couple months since I left my job.

Needless to say, I had very little money and no idea how I was going to make any. While I was pondering this problem, someone knocked at my front door. In my experience, there’s only one reason why people come calling at 7:00 at night and that’s to get money.

Reluctantly, I answered the door and that’s exactly what happened. A young man was selling newspaper subscriptions to earn money for college. I am always suspicious of this sort of solicitor; I had no intention of giving this guy my money, especially since I don’t read newspapers and I needed the money myself.

But then I heard a Voice in my head, clear as day. It said, “Give him $20.”

What? I yelled in my head. Are you kidding me? I barely have enough money for myself. Why should I give this guy 20 bucks?

The answer I heard surprised me.

It’s not for him, said the Voice. It’s for you.

None of this made any sense to me, at least not logically. How could giving $20 to someone help me?

So there I was, looking at this young man while the two of us stood in my doorway, and all the time I’m having an internal conversation with the Voice of what I’ve come to know as God. And I wasn’t exactly happy with what I was hearing.

But I’m not one to argue with God, especially when the Voice is so clear. I fumbled around for my check book, wrote a check and then sent the kid off with a third of the money I had to my name.

A wave of panic, anger and resentment set in, momentarily. Soon, however, I was overcome by love and peace.

I’ve learned to trust that Voice, to surrender to it, even when it doesn’t make logical sense. That Voice has helped me through all sorts of crazy situations. And on that day it did not let me down.

Shortly after giving away the $20, I had a financial windfall. The message was very clear to me: to have abundance, cause someone else to have abundance. Give and you shall receive.

I also realized that giving money is a demonstration of gratitude. It is a way of saying to Source — whatever you call it — Thank you for giving to me. I trust that there is enough to go around, that I can give freely knowing more will come to me. Thank you for the abundance of life everywhere I look. In gratitude for receiving this abundance, I want to help someone else have it. I give this gift lovingly and from my heart, freely and with no expectation of return.

Our lives are a direct reflection of the essence of our being, or who we are and how we live. If we live in gratitude by giving freely and from the heart, we will receive the same. It’s a universal truth understood by most spiritual traditions as:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Giving money to make money can seem counterintuitive, but the fastest way to have what you want is to “be” it. If you want abundance, be abundance. The easiest way to “be” abundance is to cause someone else to have abundance.

In other words, be the Source of that which you seek to have.This sort of giving is a form of gratitude that works miracles, especially when done without the expectation of getting something back.

But the truth is, when we give freely, we are always granted the opportunity to receive as well.

So in honor of Thanksgiving I’d like to thank you for taking this lifework journey with me.

I invite us all to be grateful to be alive. To be great-full – or full of greatness — and remember that if you want to grow somewhere great, the best way to do it is to help someone else grow somewhere great, too.