WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Benefiting Others By Helping Them Identify Their Personal Gifts

From time to time, we all have a friend or two whose morale seems low.  Perhaps they are bored with their job, overwhelmed by medical or financial issues, or just overworked.  As a caring friend, you wonder if there is anything you can do to help.  And yet, we do not want to intrude too much on their privacy, or imply that we think they are not up to solving their own problems, by themselves.

There are a number of ways to engage our hurting friend in personal conversation, but one way I have often found fruitful is to gently ask, "What personal gifts do you think you have?"  The very nature of the question ---- "What gifts do you have?" ---- seems to affirm the person's dignity and hopefully encourages them to take a more positive attitude about their life.  This is not asking how do they spend their time, but rather to think about the choices they might be making in the use of their personal gifts.

I think of a "personal gift" as any talent or skill which one uses better, easier or more successfully than  most other people.  Therefore, employing one's personal gifts is often a source of pleasure, providing a warm sense of achievement.

Usually the friend will cite a gift or two, with a sense of pride.  What personal gifts has God given to you that can be used to improve your life?  Too often folks do not even focus on whether they have any "gifts".  So, they need to take inventory.  How can they be a better steward of their gifts and personal resources, and thus develop the God-given potential that they have had from the very start?

Surprisingly, a person's inward opinion of their gifts may be quite different from what they tell you about themselves.  Sometimes a bit of false modesty creeps in ---- they do not want to appear to be bragging!  At other times we'll hear a personal gift described that had totally eluded us in our relationship with this friend.  I remember that as a teenager I had some dreams based on gifts I "wished" myself into believing that I had, but didn't have.  Luckily I outgrew those false gift illusions.

So, what do you say to a friend who tells you, "Yes, I have several personal gifts I would like to develop, but my daily life is already committed ---- I have a demanding job, and a wife and kids, so I have no time just now to try new things."  Many of us can sympathize with this over-committed friend.  It may sound a little grand, but how about trying to enjoy the feast by taking just a few bites at a time, chewing thoroughly, and savoring the flavor?

I once had a friend who had a passion for soccer, but knew he was no longer young enough to continue playing.  He turned to coaching a YMCA youth team and was happy to discover that he not only had a gift for soccer, but also a gift for teaching youngsters the finer points of the game.  He simply adjusted how to use his gifts to fit his new circumstances.

That reminds me of another important point.  When you inventory your personal gifts, some of those gifts show up over and over again through the years.  However, be alert to new arrivals.  New experiences, new challenges and new relationships with other people, may bring some new items to our personal gift inventory.  Some people call this "growth" ---- you should treat it as a blessing, and put it to work.

Where does this take us?  First, we need to be really clear about the nature of our own gifts, and find ways and time to employ them.  Secondly, when we encounter someone who will focus mainly on his or her problems, not on their gifts, draw them into conversation about this unfamiliar aspect of their lives, their gifts.  If you are lucky, you will have some impact on their viewpoint ---- a negative viewpoint that has been blinding them to the positive capabilities, skills and resources they possess.  But we cannot "fix" anybody.  Ideally, they will come to see a person (themselves) who is full of possibilities given to them by God.

The beauty of this approach is that their "cure", their capacity for renewal, lies within themselves. You are simply the catalyst and encouragement, but that is indispensable help.  

However, remember, your role as encourager is not a one-shot assignment.  Keep giving positive reinforcement, praise, and appreciation to your friend, for having continued the hard work they have started.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this Fall at CPC.

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Is It Really Enough To Seriously Give Thanks Only Once A Year?

In 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated after their first harvest in the New World, and some Americans call this the "First Thanksgiving."  Wikipedia tells us that the first Thanksgiving feast was held at the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, lasted three days, and was attended by 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.

It was already an established practice in Europe to hold feasts celebrating such blessings as a military victory, the end of a drought, or a successful harvest.  For some, it was probably seen as a religious event, for others it was perhaps a time to "let off steam and party."

One of the guests at the Pilgrim's feast was Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag Tribe.  He had taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn, and served as an interpreter for them.  Squanto had learned English while being taken around Europe as a curiosity, and during travels in England.  In addition, the Wampanoag leader Massasoit donated food stores to the fledgling colony during the first winter when supplies from England were insufficient.

The Pilgrims held another Thanksgiving celebration on July 30, 1623, after a long and nearly catastrophic drought ended with a refreshing 14-day rain, and assured a large harvest.  This 1623 Thanksgiving was significant because the order to recognize the  event was from the Plymouth Colony's Governor William Bradford, a civil authority, and not from the church.  Therefore, this probably made it the first civil recognition of Thanksgiving in New England.

"In the years following," Wikipedia continues, "irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events, and days of fasting after unfavorable ones.  In the Plymouth tradition, a Thanksgiving Day was primarily a church observance, rather than a feast day.  But such Thanksgiving Days would be a civil occasion linked to the religious one, as in 1623.  Gradually, an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed widely in the 17th century.  But, this did not occur on any set day, or necessarily on the same day in the different colonies in America."

Then in the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November, 1863, "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficial Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."  Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually throughout the United States, but today we use the fourth November Thursday.

Over the years, a number of traditions have grown up around Thanksgiving, that have no relationship to the event's early religious and civil intention.  For most Americans who celebrate with a Thanksgiving feast, a roasted turkey is the center of attraction on the dinner table.  Perhaps it was back in the era of President Harry Truman when the annual practice began for the President to "pardon" a live turkey, who would thus escape "capital punishment" and thereafter live out it's days on a nearby, peaceful farm.

In addition, many high school and college football teams will play their final games of the season on Thanksgiving Day or on the days immediately following.  This is facilitated by the common practice of employers to give workers as much as a four-day weekend.  Also, for many children, the big event of the weekend will be the annual Thanksgiving Day parade televised from New York City ---- but with much more emphasis on entertainment than on thankfulness for the year's bounty.

For many religiously-inclined Americans, the annual Thanksgiving celebration reminds us once again to thank God for the rich bounty so many of us find in our lives, whether material or spiritual.  But, many of us do say prayers of thanks throughout the year.  So, for such folks, perhaps the really unique gift of Thanksgiving is the strong sense of community with others which it fosters. 

The "community" around the Thanksgiving dinner table may be family, neighbors or just good friends ---- but, at this time of year we make a real effort to be there, even if we need to fly from a distant place.  Young and old gather.  The aroma and food delicacies create relaxed conversation and sweet recollections of people and times from the past.  In our very mobile and digitized America, has Thanksgiving Day reinvented itself again ---- morphing into an annual, not-to-be-missed day of community?

Perhaps not ---- think about the first Thanksgiving in 1621.  The Native American guests outnumbered the Pilgrims nearly two to one.  The Pilgrims were not just celebrating a good harvest and thanking God for this bounty ---- they were also recognizing their community with the Native Americans in their lives.

Today, we should be reminded that a God-given community is with us every day, not just one day each year.  We need to thank God regularly for the presence of these people in our lives.  After all, the Pilgrims were grateful for the blessing of being in community, from their very beginning in 1621.

Perhaps we each need a more frequent, personal Thanksgiving conversation with God ---- more than once a year!  Importantly, we need to thank God regularly for more than our material bounty, but also for the family, friends and neighbors with whom God enables us to live in community

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to

encourage your pursuit of personal spiritual growth this Fall at CPC. 

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Prayer and Physical Healing

Recently, I had dinner in New York City with Tom, a former college classmate who had gone on to medical school and now is a successful surgeon in the Mid-West.  We talked about many things, but at one point I asked him point-blank if he believed that prayer promoted recovery from illness or physical injury?

Tom paused for a moment and then said. "Are you asking what is the role of God in all of this, and could our prayers bring God into action on behalf of the ill and injured?"

Tom noted that we often turn to prayer when illness or injury strike.  He claimed that some Christians expect that the suffering betrays a moral flaw in the affected person.  Perhaps the sufferer is being punished for some sin, or he lacks healing because of inadequate religious faith.  So, any prayers for this suffering individual should be seeking the forgiveness of God for the former's sins and absence from God.

"On the other hand," he continued, "some Christians believe that faith alone can heal any disease and that to look elsewhere for help ---- for example, to medical doctors ---- demonstrates a lack of trust in God."

"I do not buy either of these theories," Tom said.  He believed that in many cases of healing one can see only the overall effect of religion on health, rather than the specific impact of prayer.  Lifestyle choices often account for much of the benefit of prayer, he believed ---- regular church-goers seem to smoke less, drink less alcohol, engage in less promiscuous sex and drug use, and have a supportive community to rely on in coping with problems.

"Do you see any value in prayer?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, prayer can indeed help a person cope with life's stress, give a greater sense of well- being, stimulate hope and feed a readiness to forgive ---- all of which affect health in positive ways.  One's prayers should be focused on encouraging the needy person's sense of well-being, hope and readiness to forgive others."

"How we think and feel has a direct effect on bodily health because the mind regulates the body's natural healing systems.  To the contrary, fear, loneliness, hostility, worry, grief and helplessness are enemies of healthy recovery."

Tom continued, "It does not diminish my respect for God's power in the slightest to realize that God works primarily through the mind to summon up resources of healing in a person's body.  The Holy Spirit has a role in health.  A person experiences maximum good health when all three ---- body, mind and spirit, are aligned in a way that expresses the will of the Designer."

While Tom caught his breath, I offered an additional thought:  "Those who pray for the sick and suffering, perhaps should praise God for the remarkable agents of healing designed into the body, and then ask that God's special influence to cause the suffering person to use those resources to their fullest advantage.  I believe, as you say, that the prayers of fellow Christians can offer real, tangible help by setting into motion the intrinsic powers of healing, controlled by God, in the person.  This approach does not contradict natural laws.  Rather,,it fully employs the design features built into the human body."

It was getting late, but Tom had a final thought: "Some Christians accept the regularity and predictability of natural laws in other areas, but resist them when it comes to human health.  Each of us learns to adapt our hopes and wants, to the fact that natural laws do not change just because we desire change and sincerely pray for it.

God is not a magician who rearranges life to fit our wishes.  No prayer will reverse the aging process, banish death or eliminate the need for nourishment.  Or, you could say that God has set certain rules in motion and only within those rules does there exist potential for physical healing.

We did agree that perhaps God delights in delegating some of the mission of human healing to the control of human agents like us ---- so, healing is not left completely up to God.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your pursuit of personal spiritual growth this Fall at CPC. 

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What Is the Cost of Not Obeying God?

Many people believe that even if we do not always obey God ---- we will be accepted by God, nevertheless.  In this logic, the basic operating principle of Scripture is "I am accepted by God through the unmerited free grace due from the saving work of Jesus Christ ---- therefore, one does not always need to obey God.  They believe we will be accepted by God through the work done by Jesus to establish the gift of grace, regardless of anything we do or have not done.

Other people believe they must always obey God because if they don't God will not answer their prayers, or take them to heaven upon their death.  They say: "if we remove this fear and talk a lot about God's free grace and unmerited acceptance, what incentive will anyone have to live a morally good life?"  It is argued that a Scriptural interpretation demanding total obedience to God is the best way to produce people who will be at their moral best throughout their everyday lives..

Now, consider that I might be saved only in proportion to my "good works"  Wouldn't there thus be a limit on what God would want to do for me?  I would be like a taxpayer with "rights".  I would have done my civic duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life.  But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved only by sheer grace ---- at God's infinite cost ---- then there's nothing more I need to ask of Him.  However, we can see immediately that this wonderful-beyond-belief teaching of salvation by sheer grace has two edges to it.  On the one hand it cuts away my slavish fear of punishment by God.  God loves us freely, despite our flaws and failures.  Yet one also knows that if Jesus really has done this for us, are we still totally free agents, and on our own,literally as our own master?.  The benefit has been bought at a price.

But if, when you have lost all fear of punishment, perhaps you also have now lost all incentive to live an obedient life.  So, what was your motivation in the first place?  Perhaps it was only fear.  What other incentive is there?  How about GRATEFUL  LOVE OF GOD?

Belief in Scripture is often how a person first makes a connection with God.  It gives the person a new relationship with God and a new identity.  We must not think, however, that upon believing Scripture, the Christian is now finished with the Gospel message.  I like the idea that Martin Luther is alleged to have taught, which I paraphrase here ---- that 'religion' is the default mode of the human heart.  One's "computer" operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else.  So, Luther thought that even after you are converted by Scripture, your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to "Scripture-mode".

We habitually and instinctively look to other things besides God and His grace as our justification, hope, significance and security.  We believe Scripture at one level, but at deeper levels we do not.  Human approval, professional success, power and influence, family and "tribe" identity ---- all of these things serve as our heart's "functional trust" rather than what Christ has done, and as a result we continue to be driven to a great degree by fear, anger and a lack of self-control.  One cannot change such things through mere will-power, through simply reading Biblical principles and irregularly trying to carry them out.  We must regularly "feed" on Scripture, digesting it and making it part of ourselves.  That is how we will grow spiritually.

Faith in Scripture can restructure our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity and our view of the world.  However, behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting.

God's grace is free, yes, but it is also costly in a sense ---- infinitely so.  In his famous text, "The Cost of Discipleship", Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns about the dangers of what he calls "cheap grace", the belief which stresses that because God's grace is free to us, it doesn't really matter what rules we live by.  The solution, he says, is not to return to legalism (not act like a Pharisee), but to focus on how seriously God takes sin and how only He can save us from sin at an infinite cost to Himself.  Understanding this must and will profoundly reshape our lives.  We will not be able to live in a selfish, cowardly way.  We will stand up for justice, and sacrifice for our neighbor.  And we won't mind the "cost" of following after Christ when we compare it to the price he paid to rescue us.  We will enjoy a grateful love for Jesus Christ.

Bonhoeffer insisted that the people whose lives remained unchanged by the expectation of God's grace, didn't really understand its costliness.  Therefore, that they really did not understand Scripture.  They had a general idea of God's universal love, but not a real grasp of the seriousness of sin and the meaning of Christ's work on our behalf.

In the end, Martin Luther's old formula still sums things up nicely.  As Luther would say, we are saved by faith alone [not just our works], but not by a faith that remains alone.  Nothing we do can merit God's grace and favor.   We can only believe that God has given the blessing of grace to us in Jesus Christ, and that we can therefore receive grace by faith.  But, if we truly believe and trust in the one who sacrificially served us [Jesus], it changes us into people who sacrificially serve God and our neighbors.  If we say "I believe in Jesus" but it doesn't affect the way we live, the answer is not that now we need to add hard work to our faith, so much as that we haven't truly understood or believed in Jesus at all.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping that you will discover some personal spiritual growth this Fall. 

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