Using our gifts

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. - 1 Peter 4v10

Several years ago we had an experience that really illustrates this passage. We were teaching in a Christian school and active in the ‘ministry’ at our local church. We had a friend who went to church with us and who had children in the school where we taught. He was a home appliance repairman and since we phoned him when our appliances gave us trouble. Eventually he started doing all the work and only charging us for the parts. Fair enough, that can be part of how Christians help each other. When things got really tight at the school and our pay cheques were cut he began doing any work we needed for free, even paying for the parts. We started to feel bad about it, so I started trying to do the repairs myself. To make a long story short, I broke the tumble drier so badly had to ring this friend. He asked why we did not phone him, and when I tried to explain he made a statement that has always stuck with me. “I can’t preach or teach, and I can’t work with children like you do, but I can fix appliances. Don’t rob me of God’s blessings.

This is what Peter is talking about here. He has given each of us gifts that manifest themselves as skills, abilities, and talents. There are ways that I cannot minister. There are ways that I minister that others can’t. That is part of what makes the body of Christ so important. We all have the opportunity to minster to each other in various capacities. It is a blessing that we have our own gifts. Every gift, whether it is hospitality, administration, music, teaching, preaching, encouraging, working with children, or fixing driers is important.

Figure out your gift. Don’t try to compete (like I did fixing the drier). Minister through your gift and enjoy the blessings of letting others use theirs as together we steward the manifold gifts of God.