“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. . . . And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;”
“He gave some as,” hmmm. Could our unique design and purpose be an intentional gift? Could the measure of our gift be allocated by none other than our creator?
Have you ever been given an assignment or tried something that no matter how hard you worked, you could never meet the expectations? Then you worked on something that seemed almost effortless, but because you saw it as easy you thought, “It’s not a big deal.” You may not realize it, but what you just so naturally completed, others saw as spectacular.
I was honored to have a leadership role that was primarily administrative. It exhausted and at times even angered me — no matter how hard I worked, it was always an uphill battle. It just did not come naturally. Then I was given an odd responsibility to facilitate a potentially dicey communication in an interpersonally complex situation. When done, everyone said I was brilliant. They said my efforts looked effortless. The praise seemed undeserved contrasted with my “more important” responsibilities, but I did feel a spark . . .
What gets in the way of our seeing Christ’s “He-gave-some” gift to us as valuable? What makes us believe that the glory God designed into us for His good works is meager, or even worse, worthless? Perhaps our enemy does not want us to live in the freedom and reality of our purpose that makes us dangerous for good. Maybe our enemy ties us up in insecurity and shame to keep us from living our God-intended life.
At an I Am Done event, you might just find your true design and purpose. Until then, here is a way to begin the process. Collect a handful of people who know each other well, and have everyone tell every other person what they see as:
Glorious about them
Their gifts
What makes them special
Take notes — some may cherish these words.
Instead of telling you what has happened doing this excercise with others, will let you discover this on your own. Let us know below if you tried this, and the impact it had.
To you
A.E.I.B.