Outgiving God

Funny story (eh, sort of). My husband and I both happened to go grocery shopping on the same day without knowing it, and we knew we were out of cereal, so we both bought some. When we compared notes that night, we'd accidentally ended up with quite the surplus: 3 boxes of Cheerios, 2 boxes of Lucky Charms, and a generic cornflake-almond-vanilla something. If you're wondering, I bought the Lucky Charms. I know, I'm 32 years old, but you only live once.

Anyway, this morning, when pouring my bowl of cereal, I thought to myself, "I hope I don't get really tired of cereal before I eat all this." But then, another thought occurred to me. Right now, I'm not scrounging around looking for my next meal. I'm pouring a bowl of cereal that I decided to eat, before I go to the job I chose to work, and later I'll come home and choose some pastime like reading a book or catching up on laundry. The first feeling this realization brought to me was profound gratitude at all this freedom I've been born into. Then, I remembered something Danny Daniels had said about worship at last week's conference.

I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said that God gives to us, so that we can give it back to Him, so that He can give us more, so that we have more to give back, so He can give us more still, and so on. When he was saying this, I was picturing a game of Hot Potato. That has stuck with me all week and given me a new perspective on the gifts of God. Now, every time I experience gratitude, there's a companion thought that follows it: how do I give this back?

With the cereal, I asked God to reveal to me what He wants me to be doing with all this free time and brain power I have that I'm not spending on figuring out where my next meal or dollar is going to come from. I hope that doesn't sound trite. I often hear the old worn-out advice about appreciating what you have because others don't have it. That never helped me much. It just made me sad for those others and guilty that I wasn't able to share in their suffering...guilty that I didn't WANT to share in their suffering. Well, God's gifts aren't meant to make you feel guilty. Like any decent gift, they're meant to be enjoyed. And God's gifts can't be fully appreciated unless they're returned.

In Danny's talk, he suggested playing a game with God next time you find yourself in a worship setting. He said to try to outgive God; try to win the game of Hot Potato. Every time you receive a blessing during worship, turn it around and throw it back to God in the form of praise and honor as quickly as you can. Then see what He does in return. You'll always lose, but you'll have a great time doing it.

As an aside, I've also been playing with this principle in my marriage. I realized I was spending more time thinking about things I wish Chris would do than I was spending thinking on what I could do for him. In the very short time I've been trying to outdo his thoughtfulness (which he's WAY better at than I am), my attitude has done a 180. AND, I've noticed that, without even knowing we were playing, he stepped up his game as well. So I can tell you that this kind of competition really does bring out the best in people.

- Liz Wood, Worship Coordinator