Give Your Gift

Today, I would like you to give your gift.

What? What do you mean by that? I hear you say.

Well, I guess to give your gift, you have to know what your gift is, right?

What? You don’t you know that God has placed a gift in your hands? Yes, He has. He has placed a gift right in your hands that He wants you to give the world. A gift that is unique. A gift that is like a snowflake, in that there’s never been one exactly like it before. A gift that was created for you and given to you for the express purpose of blessing the world. And since it has been placed in your hands, only you can give it.

Your gift may be bringing a smile to someone’s face, or it may be organizing, or caring for someone, or solving a problem, or creating art, or baking, or leading, or teaching.

Now your gift is not necessarily your job, what you do to make money, although it can be connected to it.   And I want to emphasize again that your gift is not just a generic off the shelf skill. It’s not like God has this list of 10 gifts he gives to people, and he picked out number eight to give  to you. Oh no, this gift was specially created, lovingly crafted for you and only you.

Well, what is it? Your best clue to your gift is that it is what brings you joy, what makes you feel most alive deep in your soul, and what you do that brings other people joy as well.

Many of us have been brought up to think our gift is what we are needed to do, or what we are “good” at doing. But that kind of thinking can sometimes hide what God has truly given us. The writer Howard Thurman once wrote,

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

So, what makes you come alive? What makes your heart truly sing? Go do it today. In some way, big or small, give your gift to the world today.