Within you is something this world needs. Within you is a gift from God waiting to be regifted.
For some reason we’ve decided regifting is a bad thing. You know, when you get a gift and then you wrap it up real nice and try to get away with giving it away to someone else. That’s regifting. And scripture actually tells us this is exactly what we should be doing. Whatever God has gifted you with, you should be giving it to others, sharing and serving with everything you have.
God never gives us a gift for us to display in a glass showcase and go untouched. He’s not a showy God, he’s practical. Let nothing be wasted. If he gives you something, it’s for the purpose of using it. And you have indeed been given something, the question is, are you using it?
1 Peter 4:10 “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”
Oh, spiritual gifts. We dismiss ourselves from those don’t we? I’ve lived in my body long enough to be extra familiar with me and well, I’m pretty sure there’s not a whole lot that’s special about me. I see no world class spiritual giftings here. Yeah, that’s what we all say. Yet scripture is incredibly inclusive when it says God has given EACH of you. Each of you means every one of you. Every one of you means all of us. And all of us includes YOU.
YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN A GIFT.
A gift from the Almighty. And God says you better be regifting what I gave you.
I read this scripture last night, then this morning I read today’s page from the 365 day journey of “Live in Grace, Walk In Love” by Bob Goff. It talked about simply being available. You may not be the smartest person in the room, but you can be the most available. You may not be the richest, but you can still be available. You may not have all the answers, but you can make the time to be available.
What if that is your gift from God … time. And you regift what you have been given by simply being available for someone else.
AVAILABLE.
If I were making a list of my favorite words in the English language, my top 3 would be: Potential, Faithful and Available
Available. What a powerful word. What a declaration that almost makes us uncomfortable. I am available. If God has given you the gift of time, will you give that gift to others? That’s exactly what he wants you to do!
Each morning before I begin the recording of the devotional, I meet online with the women I mentor. I guide them in starting their day in a powerful and intentional way. We chug a big glass of water together, and we take big deep breaths of air to remember that air is the very breath of God giving us life. Then we have morning formation. We are the BIG Life Army and we show up for formation. We report in ready to live the day grounded, centered, focused and intentional by stating the word we have chosen for 2020 and the mantra we’ve created using that word.
This isn’t just our habit, this is our intentional act to remember what we said we would do with this year of life and how we said we would live it. It’s kindof the popular thing to choose a word for the year, but we put that word into action and declare what it means for THIS DAY.
Each morning, I look forward to my BIG Life sister Kim sharing her word and mantra because it could be a compass for each of us, a guide for direction in our own lives. Every day she says:
AVAILABLE… I choose to be available for all that God has planned today! Trusting that I am Fully Equipped for His will, way, and timing!
If you’re looking for a word and mantra, try that one on for size! Let me say it again. I choose to be available for all that God has planned today! Trusting that I am Fully Equipped for His will, way, and timing!
What if God is simply asking you to be AVAILABLE? To not be too busy to notice. To not be too rushed to care. To not be too occupied to invest.
We like to over complicate things and stay stuck in this perpetual state of “well I don’t know what gift I’ve been given. I don’t know what I’m good at. I don’t know what I could be used for.”
Let’s start right here … you’ve been given time today. That is no doubt a gift. Will you use this gift of time to serve someone today? To bless someone today? To make someone know they are seen, they are heard, they are valued?
Now before you run out on the street and start staring down strangers in a creepy way with that weird “I see you” look in your eye, remember your mission field starts at home. Your availability is desperately needed within your inner circle. Be there. Be available.
Do your people know you are available to them? Do they know you will MAKE TIME for them? Do they know simply by the direction of your gaze they are important, or do they feel more like a nuisance?
Once you’ve nailed this at home, take it with you wherever you go. Bob Goff shares in his book how he was forever impacted by a singer 30 years ago. He wrote this singer a letter, never expecting to actually hear back from him. To his surprise, he received a handwritten response from him. Now Bob, being likely one of the busiest people with a whole lot of big things happening, has one goal … be available to love everybody he can. He includes his cell phone number in his book. He actually answers his phone. I know of people who have called him. He answers hundreds of emails each day, personally.
Who does that? Someone who isn’t waiting around trying to see what big hidden gift God has placed within them, and is using the obvious. God, you have given me time today, I will be available.
This challenges me. On most days I feel pretty stretched. But really if I’m being honest, I’m not so much stretched as I am scattered. And when you’re scattered, you’re not really available to anyone.
I know the scenario that plays in your mind, all the reasoning of why you don’t have time to declare you’re available, but really if you’re not available to anyone, then what the heck are you doing with your time?
When you’re at work, be available to whoever you’re working with. You know the difference between someone who is invested in you on the phone and someone who is distracted. Be the one invested. If your job is answering phones, then make it your intention to answer each call with your full availability. Hey, I’m on the phone with you right now and I’m available to help you.
Make yourself available in the 2 minutes you’re standing at the cash register buying your toilet paper. (yip, I said it) Your cashier has likely had a pretty stressed day, and your fully invested interest in them could make a true difference. Don’t be creepy, just be genuine. Have we forgotten how to care about each other?
There’s a funky little scripture that always makes me raise my eyebrows in anticipation that says “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”
Say what???!!!!! For reals ya’ll, we could be interacting with a real life angel and not know it. How sad would it be to get to Heaven one day and have God ask you how you like that angel he sent your way, then realize you weren’t available for that angel. You missed it because you were scattered. You were busy. You were in a rush.
Will you be AVAILABLE TODAY?
God has gone before you on this very day of life and made a way specifically for you. Will you be available for what he has planned? Or are you too busy? You know, the hours of this day will pass whether you’re available or not. If God brings an opportunity your way, don’t you know he will also create a way for you to run with it? There’s never a time when God places a person in your path who could really use just a few minutes of your availability, but then He doesn’t allow you the time in your busy schedule to be there. That rush is self-created. That rush is nonsense. That rush is causing you to miss the point completely.
God has perfectly equipped you with everything you need today to be available. Stop declaring you’re so busy. Busy doesn’t make you important … busy makes you unbalanced. We wear busy like a badge of value, when really busy is a label of jacked up priorities. We all have the same amount of minutes in this day, it’s how we use them that matters. If Bob Goff can answer his phone and reply to emails while he’s meeting with world leaders and running schools in Uganda, writing books, speaking on stages, and raising kids … then I’m pretty sure you and I can juggle what we’ve got going on.
Last week I mailed my mentor a handwritten 3 page letter. He’s 78 years old and has failing eyesight. When he received the letter someone had to read it to him. But you know what he did immediately after reading that letter … he called me. This is an important man. This is a man who makes million dollar decisions on a daily basis. This is a man who changed my life by simply being available.
He called to tell me he received my letter and he’s excited about my latest endeavors and big crazy dreams. He doesn’t have the next step for me, or the location to open the tropical BIG Life Resort I’ve been dreaming of, but what he had he gave me. He gave me his availability. What a beautiful gift. He had the gift of 10 minutes, and he regifted it to me.
If God has given you a gift, use it to serve others. You may still be uncertain of what your specific spiritual gifts are, and that’s okay to be on a journey to discovering what you’re good at and where you can fill a role. But it always starts with your time.
The next verse, 1 Peter 4:11 say whatever it is you can do, “Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.”
That’s next level availability. I will use my 5 minute conversation on the phone with a client, or my 2 minute interaction with the cashier with all the strength and energy God supplies. Ohhhhh, they’re getting what God has put in me! But first, my family gets it! My family gets my availability. I will sit down and have breakfast with the kids. I will sip coffee with the hubby. And I won’t be on my cell phone. I will have a conversation in the car, a true, intentional, fully engaged conversation where I’m doing less of the talking and more of the listening because for once, I’m truly AVAILABLE.
God, we are available today.
