The Gift of Faith

I graduated high school in 1991. What this means is that I was fully immersed in a new sound of music: grunge. I sported a lot of flannel and wore hiking boots with shorts. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Smashing Pumpkins were the soundtrack for my life. I thought the movie "Singles" was the coolest movie ever, mainly because of the Seattle music scene backdrop of the movie (btw, Pearl Jam was Matt Dillon's band in the movie, 'Citizen Dick'). I recently bought the movie at Wal-Mart in their $5.50 DVD bin, and after not viewing the film for a good 10 years, all of my fond memories of the film were smashed because the film really isn't that good after all. But still a great soundtrack.

But there was another band/musician that caught my ear back in those days. His style was a very simple, raw, blues-based rock 'n roll. I recently pulled the CD out and put in my truck and was surprising able to sing along with most of the songs. The artist: Matthew Sweet. The CD: Girlfriend. What caught my ear yet again wasn't just straight forward rock of the album, but the song themes. With the title 'Girlfriend', he obviously talks a lot about relationships, with their ups and downs. But another strong theme is very spiritual one. One song, entitled "Evangeline" is about a girl who won't date him (or sleep with him, for that matter) because of her love and devotion to God. And one of my favorite tracks is #1, called "Divine Intervention." Here's the opening verse and chorus:

I don't know where I'm gonna live; Don't know if I'll find a place
I'll have to think about it some; That I do not wish to face
Guess I'm counting on His divine intervention

I can't tell you how much I identify with those lyrics. Currently, I have 5 days left at my ministry in Michigan. After that, no job (that pays at least). No paycheck. No place to live in Springfield, where God has called me to plant a church. No one to buy our house in Michigan. I guess I'm counting on His divine intervention.

At the same time, my faith in God has been growing like never before. Yeah, I'm concerned and am doing all I can to find work and raise support for our church, because I have a wife and 3 kids to take care of. But I'm not worried. Jesus says that worry is a sin (Matthew 6:25-34). I really believe and trust God to take care of us. He knows that our house needs to sell, that I need a job, that we need a place to live, and that my kids need to begin school the end of August. He knows the needs and the timeline. And I am confident that he will provide it all, as we live out Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

I say all that to talk about the gift of faith. There are many lists of spiritual gifts in scripture, like in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthains 12. And faith is one of those gifts. I also think that many people misunderstand spiritual gifts. They think that they own the gift. They think that since they took some kind of goofy spiritual gift inventory and identified their "top 3 gifts", that the list is static and carved in stone like the 10 commandments. I just don't think that's true. I do believe that God does wire us up a certain way and our personalities play into our gifts significantly. And I do believe that there are certain gifts that do stick with you strongly, like leadership, teaching, serving, etc. But where I disagree is that once you identify your gifts, that you will never really exhibit any others.

I started to disagree with this in college. Whenever I took a spiritual gifts test, the gift of administration always scored a 1 out of a possible 50. This means that calculators scare me. But this one time I took an inventory and my "gift of administration" came out #2! What was that about? Well, at the time, I was overseeing all the sessions for our annual youth conference, which included organizing multi-media, drama, worship, announcements, the speaker, etc. I had to be organized and be highly administrative or I would die. So, in God's mercy and care, he raised up the gift of administration with me for a time because His church needed it.

Same thing is happening now. He is raising up the gift of faith in me. And the reason He is is because I really need it. My family really needs it. I need a faith that is unshakable that will inspire others to completely trust God with everything...even in the face of risking everything that's stable and comfortable in life, like money and a place to live.

I think this doctrine of spiritual gifts is really important because it takes control out of our hands and rightfully puts it back in God's. After all, 1 Corinthians 12: 11 says this of spiritual gifts: "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills." The gifts are the Spirit's, not ours. He will give as is needed, for his glory and for the betterment of the church.

So, I encourage you to risk something that's comfortable in your life, and give God the opportunity to do something in you that normally wouldn't happen. Allow yourself to be stretched and grown. And when you serve Jesus' church with whatever gift He's blessed you with, remember, it's all about giving back to God what's his anyway and really has nothing to do with you.

Soli Deo Gloria - Glory to God Alone,
Ryan