I’ve noticed that we often do not prefer to be well rounded,
we’d prefer to be the master of a few things than average at a bunch. Not a universal mindset, but those that
excel in certain areas (athletics, academics, or social environments)
definitely implement their areas of expertise more often than adding to their
tool chest.
If we look at the gifts of the spirit, we sometimes look at
them like personality types. For
example, if I happen to have a personality bent towards explaining things to
people, I might (mistakenly) believe that it’s a spiritual gift of teaching
from God (remember, it’s never to my glory but to God’s and most clearly seen
when it’s something I couldn’t do under my own power). I might choose to hone that skill
thinking that the greatest glorification of God is for me to become an expert
in a single field.
The truth is, it’s to MY glory if I hone that skill, not
necessarily God’s. It’s a
preference of MINE to have one thing to focus on, and hone, rather than
multiple.
Over the past couple years I’ve made a few observations:
1 1)
We’d prefer spiritual gifts that we feel in
control of. It gives us a sense of
satisfaction and, ultimately, makes us feel safe.
2 2)
We don’t explore gifts we that don’t think we’d
be good at because of our fear of failure and our fear of being out of
control.
3 3)
We believe that God has given us a gift or two
and settle for that (as if He were stingy with his giving). Our worldview doesn’t hold that maybe,
just maybe, God’s generously given us a ton of gifts (like when you’re a kid on
Christmas morning). What if we
held that God has given all of us all the gifts and that maybe when Scripture
says that not everyone has every gift, maybe it’s referring to a few certain
people that God wants to use in such dramatic ways that they couldn’t contain
one more gift, but that the rare position is actually to be lacking in a gift or
two.
4 4)
Even though Scripture says to “desire greater
gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31), we’re actually relieved at the thought of
lacking in some gifts (prophecy, tongues, healing, etc.). Instead of being devastated at the
thought of lacking some of these greater gifts, literally devastated… we’re
relieved. What’s that all
about?
5 5)
We like the idea that God’s predicable. We read books about “finding out your
child’s spiritual gift” because we don’t hold to the idea that God could give
us any gift at any time for any reason for any length of time. It’s easier to believe that God’s done
with us, that He gave us everything when we were conceived and He will just
have to work with what He’s got.
We would probably never attribute the adjective “stingy” to
God, but if any of these above observations are true, our actions suggest that
we actually find safety in believing it.
But before I make it sound like safe = good, let me say how insulting
this is to our Creator.
It’s like saying: “Thanks Mom and Dad! I really like this
gift, but you can take back all the other toys, I’d rather just spend some time
really getting some use out of this one…”
say? Next post…
