What’s Your Perspective?

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

1 Peter 4:10

As the last couple arrives for the potluck dinner, their hot casserole dish slides off its tray and crashes to the floor in the entryway. The sound of a crash and the accompanying groans bring the rest of the guests running to see what happened. And they instinctively take different courses of action.

A person with the gift of mercy wades through the stroganoff to hug the tearful wife who dropped the dish. A person with the gift of leadership starts assigning various clean-up tasks. A person with the gift of teaching bites his tongue just before saying that a plastic dish with a sealed lid might have prevented the disaster. A person with the gift of giving volunteers to drive to a nearby deli and pick up more food. And a person with the gift of prophecy starts explaining the spiritual lesson inherent in the mess—but then stops when he gets “the look” from his wife!

God has so gifted the members of the body of Christ that each has a unique perspective and contribution to make. Whatever your spiritual gift from God is, the body suffers to the degree you don’t use it.

A gift given but unused is the same as a gift never given.