{"id":3203,"date":"2023-11-29T09:22:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T14:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3203"},"modified":"2023-11-29T09:23:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T14:23:12","slug":"the-spirit-gives-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/29\/the-spirit-gives-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit Gives Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here<\/a>

During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus.<\/em>
 
An older woman decided to do some Christmas shopping downtown.
 
She was anxious about venturing into the city by herself, but felt hopeful that she could get in and out of the stores quickly and be on her way home.
 
With relief she returned to her car, only to discover she had locked the keys inside.  Along with her cell phone.  She glanced around at the unfamiliar urban terrain.  Her first impulse was to pray.  \u201cLord, I\u2019m in a fix here.  Please send me a good man who can help.\u201d
 
Moments later a man seemed to appear out of nowhere.  \u201cHaving trouble with your car?\u201d he asked. \u201cI\u2019ve locked my keys inside,\u201d she said, \u201cand I really don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d
 
\u201cNo problem,\u201d he answered.  He withdrew a long, thin device from inside his jacket.  Within 30 seconds he had unlocked the car.  \u201cHere you go,\u201d he said with a smile.  \u201cThank you so much!\u201d she gushed.  Then, looking to heaven, she said, \u201cLord, thank you for sending me a good man!\u201d
 
With that the man\u2019s smile faded.  \u201cLady,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019m  sorry to tell you this, but I\u2019m not really a good man.  In fact, I just got out of prison for grand theft auto.\u201d  The woman thought for a moment and then prayed, \u201cThank you, Lord, for sending me a professional!\u201d
 
Unfortunately, prayers like that are offered way too often in local churches. 
 
God\u2019s people, by and large, aren\u2019t particularly confident that \u201cgarden variety members\u201d are sufficiently skilled to do authentic ministry.  At least a number of congregations have a small group of professionals \u2013 a handful of specialists to whom they can confidently surrender the planning, teaching, and actual carrying out of the sharing of God\u2019s Good News. 
 
There\u2019s the pastor or priest, of course.  And the soprano soloist.  And the mission worker.  And the big giver who becomes the go-to guy during budget shortfalls.  And don\u2019t forget that amazing couple who are always willing to chaperone the middle school youth group retreat.  They\u2019re going to have the biggest mansion in heaven.
 
Those are the people who do great things for God.  The rest of us watch and pray \u2013 pray, that is, that they all don\u2019t end up getting transferred to Waukegan, Illinois, during the same month.
 
Is this reality found anywhere in the Bible?  Don\u2019t even bother looking. 
 
What we find in Scripture is not a \u201cstar system\u201d where only a few gifted people are called to make a difference.  Instead, the apostle Paul insists that every member of the Body of Christ \u2013 everyone who has chosen to throw in his or her lot with Jesus \u2013 has received a gift from the Holy Spirit.  And each of these gifts is meant to be shared. 
 
Paul uses the metaphor of the body at least 30 times in his letters.  His most significant observations are recorded in I Corinthians chapter 12. 
 
He writes, \u201cThe body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts.  And though all its parts are many, they form one body\u2026 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it\u201d (12:12, 27). 
 
That means that all of us get to run with the ball.  Every gift matters.  All of us are ministers.  Clergy may be ministers with an upper-case M, but anyone who follows Jesus automatically becomes a minister with a lower-case M.  

Of course, as someone observed years ago, ministers with an upper-case M are paid to be good, which can only mean that ministers with a lower-case M are good for nothing.   
 
With rhetorical questions that are just as amusing today as they would have sounded twenty centuries ago, Paul wonders what it would be like if Christ\u2019s body had a grand total of one part:  \u201cIf the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?  If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? \u2026As it is, there are many parts, but one body\u201d (12:17, 20).
 
This means the North American paradigm of the pastor who is expected to do everything is way off the mark.  Has God ever, in any generation, called or equipped one absurdly overextended person to take on 100 different ministry roles, and plead with a few people to help?  Instead, God regularly calls 100 people to assume one role each \u2013 who then invite the pastor to help them<\/em>. 
 
Concerning the gifts of the Spirit, Paul writes, \u201cNow to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good\u201d (I Corinthians 12:7). 
 
You might be gifted as an administrator.  Or a listening ear.  Or someone who loves teaching children.  Or one who offers encouragement.  You might be gifted with a hammer and saw on a Habitat for Humanity work site.  Or with a laptop, offering writings that inspire other people.  Or with a guitar.  Or with a financial ledger, making sure your congregation pays its bills on time. 
 
The variety is endless.  The only things that are out of bounds are fear and envy.
 
Some of us are afraid that our gifts aren\u2019t sufficiently important or spectacular.  \u201cI can\u2019t pray out loud, so don\u2019t ask me to do that.  I could never teach a Bible lesson.  And I\u2019m terrified of walking into a hospital room and spending time with someone who\u2019s just gotten bad news.  I can\u2019t do anything<\/em>.\u201d 
 
But God refuses to let us define ourselves by what we cannot do.  Paul is adamant that while the Spirit\u2019s gifts are different, every one of them matters. 
 
Nor are we to spin our wheels in the emotional swamp of gift envy.  \u201cIf only I could sing like him.  Then I\u2019d feel useful.  If only I could lead the way she leads.  Then I\u2019d be happy.\u201d 
 
To put it bluntly, \u201cNo, you wouldn\u2019t!\u201d  Each of us has been specially gifted and specifically wired to serve in particular ways \u2013 ways that have been prepared in advance by the Holy Spirit.
 
The drama of discovering our own call is too marvelous to squander by wondering what life would be like if only we had someone else\u2019s gifts.

For God so loved the world that he didn\u2019t send a team of professionals to do his work in the world.
 
Amazingly and wonderfully, he\u2019s sending you.   <\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus. An older woman decided to do some Christmas shopping downtown. She was anxious about venturing into the city by herself, but felt hopeful that she… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352,508],"class_list":["post-3203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holy-spirit","tag-spiritual-gifts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3206,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions\/3206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}