#puregift

[multishipperofgaydeadwizards]

I just realised that in most of my ships, lily won't ever have to pay for anything cuz her partners do it for her

[multishipperofgaydeadwizards]

pandalily are so innocent touches, soft kisses, cuddling for hours on end, reading to each other, baking together

[multishipperofgaydeadwizards]

marylily or pandalily

[multishipperofgaydeadwizards]

pandalily with pandora lupin and remus who doesn't know how to react when they tell him they're dating

[mattspinksjoyblog]

There is no radical obedience to God.

There is no radical obedience to God. Radical obedience appeals only to the ego and the legalist.

There is only simple obedience, inspired and empowered by the pure gift of Grace.

Simple obedience to Abba Jesus & Holy Spirit comes because we have ALREADY been included & transformed in Christ and therefore know that Their commands are always so good; better than anything!

We don’t need to sit and weigh out the options of how and why to jump, when Christ says, “Jump,” we are already jumping!

- thoughts today while reading “The Call to Discipleship,” excerpts from Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics Vol. 4 pt. 2

[gwanth1002]

[gwanth1002]

Market exchange is defined as the buying and selling of commodities under competitive conditions in which the forces of supply and demand determine value; a form of unbalanced exchange (Miller 62). This is a picture of my family eating together when they visited me on Sunday. This photo is an example of market exchange because my family participated in the marketplace where we traded money to enjoy yummy food. Food can be considered the commodity, and the food we ate at Pike Bolivian Restaurant is a great example of the competitive nature of a market. Because there is not a large supply of authentic Bolivian food anywhere in the US, a meal that would cost US $5 in Bolivia costs three times as much in the United States. If I could perform further study, I would want to see if cultural association with food causes a greater demand for that food (specifically in the US because of the wide variety of cuisine and “melting pot” status).

Pure gift is defined as something given with no expectation or thought of a return (Miller 60). This is a picture of my newly decorated and repaired laptop that my parents gave to me on Christmas my junior year of high school. My laptop can be considered a pure gift because my parents did not expect me to contribute financially to any portion of the purchase. The laptop also reflects some of the disagreement on whether truly pure gifts exist; since, my parents do have material and immaterial expectations of my behavior. Materially, my parents expect any further maintenance to be paid by me. Immaterially, my parents expect that owning a laptop will aid my studies. So, if my school performance were to drop, my parents might reconsider my need for a laptop. I chose this photo because a laptop is a significant financial investment that almost all members of the “college microculture” need to make.    

[gwanth1002]

Pure gift is defined as something given with no expectation or thought of a return. In the textbook, some people argue that it does not exist because there must be some gains through the gift-giving action. The photo is the invitation of Chinese Embassy to a Charity Dinner on February 8th. Those people who are in the dinner donate a significant amount of money and discuss how to eliminate extreme poverty in China. It is true that they could gain something through the dinner—reputation, feelings of generosity, and network. While I do not think it is contradictory to the definition of pure gift. For those who are used to devoting in charity, they have no expectations or thoughts of a return--they also have experienced the feelings of generosity enough through previous activities. The only reason for them to keep donation is the wish for the world being better, the wish for a desirable future for those children who live in extreme poverty in China. Their pure motivation cannot be judged by those who are so pessimistic about the world.

Different from the pure gift, expected reciprocity is defined as an exchange of approximately equally valued goods or services, usually between people roughly equal in social status. I took this photo at Ambassador’s Spring Festival Reception. Note that all the lights appearing in the photo are donated by one Chinese person who runs the business at Washington, DC. It is not likely for him to have the wish for the embassy to be better—as discussed above. There must be some other reasons for him to donate. In the textbook, it said that returns were expected sometime. The return of donation of lights may not appear as long as he donated, while it must somehow help the person to gain the network within the embassy, and get more connections through actively participating the activities of the embassy. The people in the reception exactly perform the Chinese culture suggests: they greet each other, talk a little bit about something involved in daily life, and then they start talking about how they can cooperate to gain some benefits/profits in the coming year. The embassy created the perfect platform for expected reciprocity.