Using Our Gifts & Privilege for God’s Glory
By Shane Bennett
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Have you had a chance recently to consider how good you’ve got it? I’m talking about a deep down, soul-lifting consideration of God’s gifts to you. The sort of thought process that reminds you you didn’t hit a triple, you were actually born on third base!
If you’re going through hard, hard times right now, it might be tough to think this way. But it also might be particularly important. I haven’t spent much time on the precipice of despair, but maybe an effort to focus on what isn’t terrible could be a good way to walk back from the edge.
A serious inventory of the good stuff in our lives might also pleasantly remind us that we serve a God of abundance and abundant goodness.
The God of Abraham
Imagine the beep, beep, beep of God’s “Dump Truck of Amazing Gifts” as he backs it up to Abram’s tent and begins to raise the bed! “Abram! Grab your wife and get out here. I’m fixin’ to bury you in blessing! (What? God’s not Texan?) You’re going to have a land that’s yours. You’re going to have more kids than you can count! I’m going to elevate your regard among all men. I’ll have your back and mess with the people who mess with you. And, get this, both of you, you have a purpose beyond your imagination. You are charter members of the Global Blessing team. We’re going to take these gifts to every clan on the planet.”
The presents you and I get may be different from what God gave Abraham and Sarah, but they are similarly huge, certain, and rich in purpose. When I lived in Holland, I remember walking down the charming streets of Amsterdam, shaking my head and thinking, “How did I get so lucky to live and work here?” Even now, in southern Colorado, it’s crazy good. As I write, intrepid workers are installing solar panels on our roof to capture power from the wonderful number of sunny days here.
It may be cloudy where you are, but I hope you share my sense that a good God has smiled on you lovingly and abundantly. If so, there are two things I’d like to say.
1. Let’s recognize our privilege.
I know “privilege” is a provocative word these days and I don’t choose it lightly. But I can’t get around the sense that I have some advantages. I can make a long list of things in my life I did little or nothing to bring about but that make everything easier than it might have been. Maybe you do, too?
I grew up with two parents who stuck it out through thick and thin and three siblings who didn’t kill me though few would have blamed them if they did. Through junior high and high school, I had a pastor who pumped value into my friends and me and valued Jesus even more than he valued us.
I don’t worry about food, either the amount or the safety of what’s available. Nor water. Nor whether or not I can keep the house warm enough this winter to keep the kids healthy. Nor if there are resources for medicine if they do get sick.
And I know I’m part of a society that is still generally run by privileged people like me (see here, here, and here) and they still generally run it for their (and my) benefit.
To be honest, I’m not sure how to deal with that. If you felt like God was leading you to devote your life to leveling the playing field, I’d cheer you on. But if the lone African American woman in my Perspectives class two nights ago, or the Mexican woman sitting near her, looked at me and asked, “It’s not fair the way the system is organized right now. What will you, as an insider, do about it?” I’m not sure how I’d respond. I hope I would at least listen to them and at a deep, honest level believe what they said.
This irony is not lost on me: I have the privilege to sit in my comfy chair, in my comfy house, and ruminate thusly, fully expecting you’ll read what I type on my new MacBook Pro.
2. Let’s consider what to do with it.
Sometimes Jesus asks us to give up everything, right? That was his prescription for the rich young ruler in Mark 10. Zacchaeus only had to give up half (and four times whatever he had gained by cheating!) Sometimes we expect that to be the vibe: God or a mythical preacher extending his mythical bony finger toward us and saying, “Thou shouldst giveth away thy goods and pecuniary resources!” Fair enough. The Bible shows us there’s a time and place for that.
I prefer the biblical model of stewardship. Every good gift comes down from the Father and is intended to bless his kids and facilitate their involvement in his kingdom-building enterprise. As good stewards we:
- Assess what we have, e.g., money, stuff, gifts, abilities, privilege, or even spiritual maturity forged in suffering.
- Compare that to the overall goal. Short version: Genesis 12:3b. For the longer version, take Perspectives!
- Figure out how the first step gets you to the second.
- Critique your stewardship success, but maybe not that of Bob in the pew next to you!
I so want to be faithful and true in this, but often fall short.
Last week, I read a super fun book related to this. (There’s the privilege again: I have the time, eyesight, resources, and security with which to read super fun books.) In More or Less, author and cool guy Jeff Shinabarger asks us and himself, how much is enough, and what would it look like to live a life of extravagant generosity?
Jeff made me wonder what I have an excess of and what it might be like to give that away. Some of the things he did seem easy: Decide how many t-shirts you need and give away the rest. Others, not so much. He and his wife gave up a huge chunk of their backyard to be a community garden. Personally, I need to grow in understanding where I have excess. I’m learning, slowly, how to give away money.
But one thing I have more of than some people is access to the attention of sharp believers. Yep, I mean you, among others. Believing that access to be a gift of God, I want to steward it to the best ends. When appropriate, I want to open doors for people who weren’t born into the privilege I was, but—and this should come as no surprise—have important things to say about God’s global purposes. (If that’s you, I’d love to chat!)
Grace to you as you steward your time, health, privilege, and money. May God lead you in a few minutes of reveling in the good gifts of your savior and the delight of being chosen by him. It might help you to crank Matt Maher’s Alive and Breathing! It sure does me.
Subversive Mobilization: Help Needed
Psst, over here, I’ve got a quick question for you: If God has given you skills in the dark arts of admin and IT, I could use some help. I need someone to help me drop fewer balls and help me with the content delivery I think God may want me to be about. If that sounds interesting (or more importantly, like good stewardship) for you, shoot me a text (719.251.1403). Let’s do some cool stuff together.