“… I pray that you will have the courage to say yes to the things that God is calling you to, or may call you to, and have the humility to serve…”
When I was in campus, I served in a Christian community and every graduate group would have a day to be celebrated, we called it wahenga night. Our wahenga night came and there was this lady who was speaking, she said some words to us which I remember them every time I am signing up to a role or leaving a space I have served in.
You see I had a certain way I wanted this blog to look like, naturally, I normally don’t want to lose anyone even if we disagree on our thoughts and although I knew that God wants people to be reminded of who He is and His love in this blog, I didn’t want to lose those of us who don’t believe in Him so I wanted to create content in a way I thought that be okay for everyone. I wanted to be on everyone’s side at the expense of being on God’s side and it’s Him who has made me a gift in this way. God took me through the process of understanding how He has packaged this gift and it’s so different from what I thought, I never even thought I would ever blog in the first place! So I am learning to allow Him to instruct me how to present this gift to the world because even in this space, I am serving and I want to serve those I am meant to serve efficiently and effectively and that can only happen if I do it on God’s terms.
That is how it is, for you to know exactly how to use a gift, you must understand how it operates and its purpose. One of the ways to know how a particular thing operates or its purpose is to get the instruction from the manufacturer. So, you as our gift, the only way you will be the gift you were meant to be to us, is endlessly staying in tune with your Creator. That way, you learn the way you were packaged, when to function or when not to and how to function, you can always get back to your creator if you need to be serviced up so that you function more effectively.
Some of the ways that you can know how you are a gift are by;
- Look at the things that do not sit well with you, what issues in humanity and the world bothers you, that can go from the seeing litter on the ground, young people wandering in confusion through life, a cloth wrongly made in terms of where the stitches are and how the material is cut to wrong governance. What solutions do you want to see in the world, what changes do you want to see?
Be the change to want to see in the world ~ Gandhi
- Which are the things that bring fulfilment you when you fulfil them especially when serving others. It could be making meals for your family, providing guidance to young people, helping people look good( grooming people), taking care of the orphans, street children and the less privilege and so much more.( tag pages)
- What are the things that people compliment you for? people tell me I am a good listener, it’s not always the case but more often than not and I didn’t think I had the capacity in me to be accommodation that way but I have found that several people have been affirmed, experienced emotional healing just by me being still and listening to them, responding when I can because sometimes they will not allow me to(they have alot to let out) and other times I just perceive that my response is not necessary.
- What are the abilities/strengths that are naturally in you? Do you naturally love singing and music? create stuff? find yourself interested in things like photography, design, paintings? influence people to do something?
I have discovered that as much as I am a gift, I am not everyone’s gift every time per se. It takes humility, with the many ways we are gifted and opportunities to unpack the gifts in us to consult from our Creator when to allow ourselves to be experienced by the world because sometimes the people who are supposed to experience the gifts we are do not appreciate it and God would want to protect us from such energies and atmospheres.
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human ! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process…
Philippians 2:5-8 MSG
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
Matthew 7:6 NKJV
God honours the gift He has packaged in you and is willing to protect you from people who do not appreciate that gift so it is prudent that we submit it to Him and lean on Him to teach us when to operate and when not to.
Also, sometimes, God is still on the business of packaging us and He knows that we are not ready to be experienced as gifts in a certain way, so if we go ahead because we think we can, we give the world half the experience of who we could be, for instance, I never thought I could write until God put this desire in me to edify the world with the things I am learning, behind the scenes all these years, God has been teaching me, molding me through various ways and people and building capacity in me to be a gift to the world in this way. I hope we will always consult God on when and how we can be gifts. For our sake and the sake of those who experience us.
Honestly, I believe the world does not need more bloggers, teachers, entrepreneurs, doctors, chauffeurs, photographers, plumbers, mothers, designers, preachers etc per se. The world needs people who are sons of God in all these spaces! People who are dependent on God’s Spirit to function is what the world is crying out for because as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. That is the only way we can fully partner with God to make this world better place, knowing the mind of God in our different spheres and living it out is what guarantees the kingdom of God comes and the hearts of men are turned to what Is right and of life. So ask yourself, as the gift I am, I am being led by God or by other personal motives that are mostly insatiable?
For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].
Romans 8:19 AMPC
The one question that comes to someone determined to be a gift and live for something bigger than themselves, is if they will still be able to live the life they desire in terms of providing for their needs and those dependent on them if I take this path. The only thing that God made clear or promised would bring you and make you dine with kings is your gift.
A man’s gift makes room for him And brings him before great men.
Proverbs 18:16 NKJV
This world runs on systems, one of the system is that if you give it comes back to you, if you allow yourself to be a gift, the system put in place ensures you too enjoy the gifts of other people and that includes providence, the provision may not always come in the way you think it will, but it comes. Ours is to be in line with the one who created us to be gifts, He got us, even better when we allow Him to.
Amidst all the joys and challenges of living out our lives as gifts, appreciating other people as our gifts, being more interested in how they are a gift despite their flaws, even when it’s hard to perceive and understand how some people are gifts sometimes, even ourselves, I hope we don’t lose sight of our creator, who is the giver of all gifts, may He forever be our main pursuit because in a very divine way, as we pursue God, He reveals more capacity in us to be gifts.
Echoing Grace’s words on that beautiful evening, may you have the courage to say yes to spaces God is and will call you to and may you have the humility to serve in those spaces.
Love and Light!
Written and compiled by Nancy karanja
