Stranger ThingsSample

Sharing is Caring

What is your favorite Christmas gift you have ever received? I’m old, so mine was an original Nintendo NES I received in 1989. It will be hard for younger readers to understand just how revolutionary this device was, but this was the first major at-home gaming system to sweep the nation, and it was on EVERYBODY’S Christmas list at that time. I woke up, saw that beautiful, giant Nintendo box, made my dad hook it up to the TV immediately, and began to play as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. Yet, having two younger siblings, it was only a matter of time before my mom would walk in and insist that I – say it with me now – SHARE with them. Ugh! Of all the things I ever wanted to do that Christmas, playing Mario with my three-year-old sister ranked right up there with eating an entire fruit cake (because, let’s face it, that’s a loaf of hot garbage masquerading as a dessert). 

I share all that not just to get it off my chest (though I do feel better now, thank you); I share that because when we hear the word “gift,” we are preprogrammed to think of something that is FOR US. When someone gives you a gift, it’s for you to enjoy, right? That’s the whole point! Well, when it comes to Christmas or birthdays, that tends to be how things work out. But, as Peter has reminded us again and again, God works in very different ways than we do. When God gives a gift, it is for the sole purpose of us giving it away to others. And the reason He works that way is not just to give us something to do; it’s actually designed to point people back to God. When we serve others with the gifts God has given us, it’s not supposed to reflect on us or make people focus on the gift itself. Done properly, it leads people to thank God for using you to meet their need.

So, if you serve kids at church on the weekend, it’s not so that the girl you have a crush on will see you doing that and want to go out with you. It’s so that those kids will catch a glimpse of how much God cares for them by the way you faithfully show up and lead them. If God has given you a musical gift, it’s not so you can be onstage under the lights shredding guitar for the world to see. It’s so that you can contribute to helping people come before God in worship with their focus solely on Him. I could go on with examples, but you get the point. So, two questions: what gift has God given you, and how is God getting the credit as you use that gift to serve others? If either of those are tough to answer, it’s probably time to get in gear.