The Gift of the Ordinary

In my early years, when what Jesus had done for me literally went without saying, or was reduced to a footnote (*Jesus died for me, and now I must….) I became very interested in Spiritual Gifts.  I researched all the scripture passages, like Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12, where gifts were mentioned, compiled my lists, made charts and then set about identifying my specific gifts.  I presented this material to my church and encouraged them to identify their gifts as well.  I was even invited to share my research with other churches. 

I came to the conclusion that if people did not recognize and name their gifts they would never use them, and would therefore never accomplish the works God prepared in advance for them to do. (Ephesians 2:10).  I viewed those works as the special plans God has for our lives and believed that it was our responsibility to diligently seek to discover what they were, with the fear that, if we were lazy or unconcerned, we might miss our moment and let down both God and the waiting world.

To be truthful, there were times when I wondered why God hadn’t given more direction in scripture about how to know for certain which gifts you had been given.  I thought perhaps things were clearer to those in the Early Church, and that people today needed more help; so, I pressed on with my well-intentioned way of helping God help others discover his plan.

The problem with my understanding was that it caused me to discount the ordinary in search of the extraordinary.  The mundane interactions of my day, at my job, with family, friends or strangers, held no special significance for me.  In reality, I am embarrassed to admit, I saw them as distractions from or obstacles to my finding or performing my true calling.  I viewed my daily routine as the stuff of life which got in the way of my doing the real work God had for me to do.

For example, if I identified a gift of teaching, then my true significance would be found only when I was teaching or doing something related to teaching; and ‘teaching’ would be narrowly defined in terms of some class or group I was leading.  I would view anything which interfered with my focus on that as an interruption.  I would feel guilty if I allowed myself to spend time doing something frivolous like watching a movie or television, or reading a novel.

It is only as the Gospel began slowly exposing my self-righteous strongholds that I came to realize how even attempting to identify my Spiritual Gifts and the works which God has planned for me to do could become idols and self-salvation projects, which had the end result of narrowing my focus to a degree that severely limited the ways I related to the world and the people in it.  I have now come to see those scripture passages in a different light.

The word in the Greek used for these gifts apportioned by Christ and distributed through the Holy Spirit, is “charis” and is the same word translated as “grace” throughout the New Testament.  At its root, it means “to rejoice”, and it conveys the idea of favor specifically given without the expectation of return, which produces joy in the one receiving favor. We understand grace as primarily referring to the unearned, unmerited favor which God bestows on us through the life, death and resurrection of Christ on our behalf.  Therefore, when the same word is used in relation to the Holy Spirit gracing us with these various ways of expressing love to our fellow man, it seems safe to conclude that they are not given to us with the expectation that we must use them to pay God back. That would be the opposite of gift.

I now believe that the verses where Paul lists the varied gifts were not intended to be used as a check list for identification purposes, but are simply a description of what is, and are primarily intended to show us the folly of looking at others and saying, “See what they’re doing.  I should be doing that and I am not.  There is something wrong with me.”  Or, “I am doing this.  Look at them! They’re not doing what I’m doing.  There is something wrong with them.”   I see Paul, in his discourses on gifts, simply making the point that God graces each of us differently; we are not, nor should we expect to be, the same.  I may not be good at teaching or evangelizing, but I might love to lend a helping hand.  I may not give as much as you give, or enjoy having people in my home the way you do, but I may be more of an encourager.  Your faith may be stronger than mine.  If I don’t do what you do and vice versa, that’s not only okay, it’s the way God designed things to be.  We can’t measure anyone against ourselves or anyone else.  We are who we are, and we are who God graced us to be. 

We are each God’s unique creation; and, as his unique creations, we have been lovingly and thoughtfully placed in our families, communities and jobs. In other words, God placed us in our lives, in all of their mundaneness and routine, responsibility and challenge, and graced us with the gifts best suited to our personalities and circumstances; those which will help us to love as we have been loved and to bless as we have been blessed.  Not as payment for what we have been given, but in humble, grateful, joyous response. We may be called to do something highly visible, or we may not; but that is up to the Creator to reveal and is not something we ever need to worry about finding or missing.

When I finally grasped this concept, I was given back the joy of the ordinary.  I saw that the stuff of life was the real work God had for me to do.  Daily routines were my sphere; interactions at work or the grocery store were viewed as gifts.  I realized that grace is everywhere, even in movies, television programs and novels. I understood that, were I to neatly classify my gifts, I could easily be in danger of taking credit for them; and, if I believed I knew the plans God had for me, I would tend to be upset if the Wind of the Spirit wanted to blow me in another direction. 

Grace has handed the entire beautiful, messy world to us and commissioned us to freely be ourselves and then to hang on for the ride; and, as each of us live and rejoice in that freedom which is ours solely because of what Christ has done, the Body of Christ will be built up “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)