One Last Gift

Statistics say that 17 millions people are still shopping for last minute gifts today, on Christmas Eve. Maybe you’re one of those, or maybe you’re the one who had everything wrapped by Thanksgiving! Either way, there is another kind of gift to consider before you put your gift-giving hat away just yet.

The best gifts to give are the ones that incur an exciting and animated response from the receiver. It is so rewarding to give a gift to someone who is truly blessed by the gift you have given them. It is nice, in some way, to receive the “credit” for those gifts as well. We make jokes about husbands winning “brownie points” to last them for the year, but really it is a nice feeling for us when the recipient knows that this great act of thoughtfulness or generosity came from us. You get accredited with the “points”!

But what about when there is no credit that can be given? What about when the receiver of all that thoughtfulness and generosity could never tell you that satisfying ‘thank you’? Or when they will never even know that you are the one that gave it?

Each Christmas, we should each take the time to give this kind of anonymous gift. Some of you may already have done so, through organizations like the Salvation Army, the Angel Tree, or local food banks. I want to take the time this Christmas Eve to encourage you to not only make the effort to give to give a significant gift like this, but also to add it to your yearly tradition. Teach your children how to do it as well! Giving gifts to those less fortunate and to those who will never know your name, is a great act of selflessness that reminds us of all the good there is to be found in giving.

If you haven’t given this year to a charity for those less fortunate, it is not too late and I will recommend one to you now! The organization ‘World Vision’ is a wonderful organization that does exactly this kind of work. Rob and I, along with 1,000s of others around the world, sponsor a child monthly throughout the year with this great outreach, but they also have plenty of one-time gifts you can give if you prefer, or want to do something extra! They have a gift catalog of things you can buy to send to children and families in third world nations, and it includes options such as buying a fishing kit and teaching a man to fish (you know the saying), helping to provide clean water to a community, sending bibles to children, or paying for education so a child can go to school. Our College & Career group was excited to send in a gift to buy a goat and 2 chickens for a family, to provide them with a continual supply of milk and eggs.

The options are endless, and you can even narrow it down by price range and category if you are looking to do something specific. I just wanted to encourage everyone today to give a gift this Christmas for which you will never get credit, but which will bring great joy and blessing to someone who needs it today. If you are interested in giving such a gift, you can click on the picture below and it will take you to World Vision’s gift catalog. I hope you find something that you can do today.

It is so important to not only remember that Jesus is the reason for the season at Christmas time, but also remember that in our giving, we should always remember the ones for which He told us to care, and that providing for widows, orphans, and those less fortunate is a gift that might be overlooked in this life, but never in the heart of God. Stretch your giving this year; open your heart. Bring smiles to a face you will never see. I guarantee it will bring a smile to yours.

Play Your Part

In music, there are many different kind of formats and styles of pieces. In all my years of classical piano studies, there was one type of piece that was my favorite to play — the concerto. Concertos are written for 2 parts: a soloist, and an accompaniment. The accompaniment is originally meant to be an orchestra, but since most musicians don’t have an extra one of those lying around, the orchestra part is usually played by a second piano. So, to get the picture in my case, they were performed with two pianos on the stage. One played by my teacher (the orchestra), and the other by myself (the soloist).

I loved performing these concertos! It was a lot of time and work to learn them, but performing them was always thrilling experience. It was exciting to get to the ‘big’ parts of the music, where the sound of two pianists playing was a much larger sound than I could have ever created playing just by myself. As fun as those big parts were, in between them, there were also whole sections where I would not play at all — where only the orchestra would play, and the soloist would rest.

Have you ever been to an orchestra concert of any kind? Have you observed the instruments as they played in harmony? If you look closely, you will notice that not all of them play all the time. There are moments when each instrument has a break — some, for a few lines, others, for a few pages. For many instruments, playing in harmony means not playing at all in certain measures; it can mean letting another instrument take the lead, and you supporting it.

Our bodies operate a bit like an orchestra as well; there are many members, many parts. The Bible compares the Body of Christ to our bodies in that same way. Romans 12:4,5 reads “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

As members of the Body of Christ, we spend far too much time comparing ourselves to the “function” of the other members, when we should only be concentrating on our own. If I, as a pianist, were concentrating on the accompanist’s part and comparing it to mine, I would probably miss my entrance because I am distracted! I have to stay focused on my own assignment.

Why should I feel insecure if other players or musicians are doing a good job, and playing better than me? That does not make me look worse…it makes me look good! Why? Because we are a team. Together. We need each other!

Take any group sport, and you can see the analogy of a ‘body’ working together. In a team sport like baseball, they have players both on the field and in the dugout at all times. In football, there are players on the field and on the sidelines. All are needed for different functions, and no matter who is playing the most, all are equally a part of the team.

You may feel like you’ve been sitting in the dugout for awhile, waiting for your turn. Let me encourage you, you DO have a part, and as you stay faithful, God WILL get you in the game! So don’t use the time on the sidelines to feel sorry for yourself or become discouraged; instead, get yourself ready and prepared to play. Once you’re out there in the field, you’ll see the value of the time you spent recharging in the dugout.

What if I had the attitude of 1 Corinthians 12:16-18? It says “…If the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye , I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

It goes on to say in verse 21, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” This is “so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:25-27).

I will add this analogy — What if you are the ring finger on the hand, and you get jealous of the thumb? You may think, ‘if only the thumb were gone, then I would look better!’ No,  once the thumb is gone, it doesn’t make the ring finger look any bigger or better! All it does is cause the whole hand to look incomplete. This analogy sounds is obvious and silly to think of in a literal sense, but there are many Christians acting this out in their lives every week in churches around the world. May this not be our heart!

There is a symphony that God has written for us to play together as a body. There is also a solo that has been written just for you from the foundations of the earth, that is a part of that symphony. There is a tune that can only be sung by the voice of your life. God is the writer. You are the instrument. He has given you all you need, but you have to be the one to pick up your instrument and play it. You also have to learn how to play together with the group, knowing when to wait on the other instruments to finish their parts, and how to value everyone’s contribution together.

There may be times when you lose your place in the music. There may be times when you feel like your entrance into the music will never come. There may be times when your fingers get tired from playing the notes. There may be times when you forget about the importance of your part. (If you feel this way, take some moments to read and think on this passage about the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.)

Prepare to win! Play to win! Play your game the best you can play it today, and don’t worry about tomorrow. Don’t consider the other people around you, except to pray for them and help them play their part too. We trust God with our future, we trust Him with tomorrow! He, our master conductor — the Author of our souls —, knows the sheet music from start to finish. He is directing the notes we play with our every step, and won’t let us miss our cue. He will show us where we are, who we are, and how to play our part. He gives us the rhythm, the beat, and the dynamics to play it like a masterpiece. Play your part, and together, we’ll win this race!