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The gifts God has given us require a level of persistence to grow and grace to deliver.
I don’t think I ever really sat and thought about the concept of stewarding my gift through intentional growth.
We can both grow our gift in value and we can grow in our delivery.
Think about how the natural gifts you’ve given have matured as you’ve matured. They’ve become more thoughtful, maybe increased in monetary value, required some sacrifice and effort. No longer are we giving child like gifts of crayon scribbles on construction paper. At the time those gifts were appropriate, and precious. If we were to give a similar gift now, it might be a little strange.
Imagine if you had an amazing gift wrapped box and instead of smiling and gently handing it to a person, you were having a tantrum and threw the package at them. The gift giving experience might taint the gift a bit.
I don’t much like speaking in allegory and figurative language, my brain doesn’t naturally work that way. I value efficiency, don’t tell me a long story if you can just give me the bullet points. But I’m realizing that having a variety of ways to deliver is an important skill. To be able to read a room and deliver in a way that best suits them instead of being a bull in a china shop and making everyone adapt to my prefered style.
This is part of my process of maturing and growing in delivery.
You know what is so painful? When our gift is not recognized or valued.
When the thing we’ve stewarded in our heart is not accepted.
When our gift is outright rejected.
The devil wants nothing more than for you to hide your gift and put it on a shelf and never touch it again.
Some people can’t recognize a good gift. They have no finesse, or taste.
Or if we’re being real here, their gift has been rejected and they’ve allowed bitterness to creep into their heart and the adage rings true: Hurt people, hurt people.
And we have zero control over that.
We can lead and create cultures to value peoples gifts, but it’s impossible to make someone value something that they don’t value.
All we have control over is ourselves.
Is our gift appropriate? Have I truly stewarded this gift well? Have I intentioned to invest in these gifts and make them grow? Or am I showing up and throwing scribbles on construction paper at people and wishing they would say something nice about it?
Are you cultivating a good experience around the gift giving?
If we’re a jerk every other second except the time to bring our gift then I don’t think that gift is going to be accepted well.
The gift is better when the experience of the giving is better.
And are you willing to face rejection of your well stewarded gift?
I wonder if we’ve stopped stewarding our gifts well because we’ve been rejected. And the harder we worked, the more time we put in, the more delicate details we fussed over, the more hurtful the rejection.
So next time in self preservation, we don’t put the work in, and we deliver it defensively.
And those results are a self fulfilling prophecy. And reaffirms the lie, “what I do doesn’t matter, and no one cares.”
But the truth is, the gift you do have does matter, and part of the delivery is doing the hard work of communicating the gifts VALUE.
Sometimes “convincing” people requires persistence, resilience and skill. It requires vulnerability and bold communication.
Whoever receives a prophet as a prophet, receives the prophets reward.
I think what this verse is saying is that when you accept someones gift, you get their best work. When you want, and respect, and honor what they are giving, you create an atmosphere for them to show up and give their best.
But we cannot wait for perfect atmospheres. We have to see the value of the gift and steward it well no matter the circumstances. We have to choose to intentionally grow our gifts even in the face of rejection and we have to deliver it strategically. Ready to persevere through people not getting it the first or second or millionth time. Going back to the drawing board, being confident of the gifts value because we know who gave it, and ask for His wisdom on how to deliver it.
We have to stay connected to the gift giver and ask Him for feedback on why our delivery didn’t work. We have to be open to correction that maybe we haven’t stewarded our gifts well and grown our gifts.
But He is no stranger to rejected gifts. God has given the PERFECT gift of Jesus and has still been rejected. A gift of such great value that is still seen as unimportant by so many.
Get with the gift giver and remember the why of the gift. The gift is ours to steward, not to own, not to get glory from. The gift is His. And the purpose of those gifts is to shine the light of who He is in the earth.
The gift you’re stewarding is needed. Past rejections are only making your gift better. But it only gets delivered better if you choose to come out of hiding and grow.
Take a deep breath. Stand up. Brush yourself off. Get your bearings. Grab the Father’s hand. Help create a culture where gifts are honored. Mature in your gift. Be excellent in your delivery. And let’s go.
