Articles by Charlotte Gambill

The Gift of Life

In this article I want to share a few thoughts which echo and develop the challenge given to us in Pastor Paul’s opening article, ‘Improving Your Serve’.

When we think about the word ‘gift’ in a church context, we tend to think about specific talents we have and spiritual gifts in particular. Then, if we use the word ‘gift’ in the secular world they are most likely to think we are talking about a present, a gift, such as the one you might give me on my birthday! But, neither of these definitions, although correct, help us view our life as Christ does.

Giver or Gift?

Jesus lived everyday of his life, not as a giver but as a gift. In himself he was a gift to everyone he came into contact with. Scripture tells us that, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only son.’1 He didn’t just send, lend or share him; he gave him as a gift. The purpose of Jesus’ coming was to be the ultimate gift to everyone he met.
And our lives are exactly the same. As those who are ‘in Christ’ we are the continuation of his life on earth. We are his Body, the embodiment of Christ in our generation. All the amazing untapped potential inside you, in fact your whole Life, is also a gift.
The ‘Gift of life’ that Jesus was to us is best described by the verse which says: ‘The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.’2 Christ came to give his life away. Consider for a moment what Jesus actually gave. Jesus gave:

- Honour to his parents
- Respect to his teachers
- Wisdom to his disciples
- Patience to Thomas
- A second chance to Peter
- Forgiveness to his executioners
- Inclusion to Zacchaeus
- Healing to the cripple
- Dignity to the prostitute
- Wine to the newlyweds
- A knee for children to sit on
- Tears of compassion to

Mary and Martha

Jesus gave the ‘kiss of life’ to everyone he encountered, he was the ultimate gift of life.
Where then has this spirit gone from much of the church? People become infatuated with being served and have forgotten that their purpose is the same as Christ’s; to live their life as if it is a gift to all they meet.
Notice that Jesus didn’t preach to the children; that would have been making them serve his area of gift. Instead he gave them what they needed, a knee to sit on. He didn’t question Mary’s faith as she cried over Lazarus, he just wept with her and then raised him from the dead afterwards. Why? Because in those few moments, Mary just needed a shoulder to cry on. His life was a gift to her, meeting her right where she was at.

And it is the same for you and I. The ‘gift of life’ which you are, is best seen expressed through the so-called ordinary things of life. Things like your smile, a word of encouragement, being inclusive, applauding someone, a phone call, running an errand, babysitting or mowing someone’s lawn. Your life was the gift they needed in that moment. Sometimes we think these things are too small or not special enough. But these are the things Jesus did as an expression of his everyday life as a gift to all people. And if you want to improve your serve, you must do the same; live your life as if it is a gift of life.
There are four things you must understand to maximise the potential of living your life as a gift:

1) The Gift is not Earned

Many don’t give their lives away unless they are presented with a good reason to do so. The situation must merit their service, attendance or involvement. Maybe that’s because life subliminally teaches us that gifts are to be earned. So, if you make it through another year, you get a birthday or anniversary gift. When you graduate college or pass your driving test, you get cards and gifts of congratulation.

The Message translation says: ‘If you’re a hard worker and you do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift.’3 In other words, each month when you get paid, you aren’t surprised because you have earned it. Your salary is owed to you. The language of ‘gift’ only comes to the fore when we move to the matter of serving and blessing people in situations where they did not earn it; you gave them something for no particular reason. Indeed, the most treasured gifts are those you receive totally out of the blue; you just were not expecting them, but someone decided to bless your world.

Unfortunately, we have made things that are supposed to be gifts into things people have to earn. Transferring this world-view into the realm of spiritual things results in us only giving if we are presented with a good reason. As a result we want people to earn forgiveness, earn grace, earn a second chance and earn our love. When we transfer this thinking to the church and God himself, we somehow expect them to earn our tithe, our worship, our commitment and serving. By so doing, we treat what should be a gift as a wage.
I don’t remember earning my forgiveness. I don’t remember earning the second chance Christ gave me through the cross. But God gave me one anyway. What about you? What right now in your world are you making someone earn, which God has told you to just give as a gift? Every day I tell my husband Steve that I love him. Sometimes he will ask, ‘Why?’ And I will always reply, ‘No reason!’ That’s not because I can’t think of one, there are many reasons why I love him. The point is, I don’t ever want to make my love for him dependant on a list of reasons because that means that he is earning my love. And if there are reasons why he earns it, then for those same reasons I can take my love away.

Learn to love the people in your world for no reason. Take a moment to read Luke 6:27-38. This passage will test whether or not you have grasped this principle. It asks us to love our enemies, to give the person who steals our coat a gift-wrapped tunic as well! It teaches us to love people for no reason. The final verse says, ‘Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over.’ I have heard this verse quoted many times but rarely in its true context. The context is one of loving your enemies. So, God is promising that when we can give to our enemies for no reason, he will give back to us in even greater measure.

2) The Gift Costs the Giver

When you buy someone a gift, you pay. You don’t walk up to your friend and say, ‘It’s your birthday next week, so give me £50 and I will buy you something nice.’ No, you are supposed to pay for it out of your own resources and then remove the price tag so the person who receives this gift is unaware of how much it cost you.

Sometimes the things we go through in life cost us, they are expensive, so we hold onto them because of the expense. But we are supposed to give them away as part of our ‘Gift of Life’ – without the price tags showing! For whatever reason it may be costing you dearly to serve in church, to amen or smile at someone; maybe life has dealt you a bad hand at this time. But in the middle of great cost, keep giving. Don’t keep reminding your pastor how hard it is for you to give financially, or serve because, after all, you had to catch the bus to church and get a baby-sitter, and so on. Just give it as a gift and take the price tag off. God knows the cost and that’s all that matters. Be provoked by the Macedonian churches about who’s giving Paul said: ‘Out of severe trial came overflowing joy and out of extreme poverty came rich generosity.’4 They had truly learned how to give, no matter what the cost.

The Gift is to be Beautifully Wrapped

The way a gift is presented is very important to me. A bunch of flowers from the petrol station, which were a last minute thought and half dead anyway, are not as special as flowers from someone who went to the florist and handpicked my favourite blooms and had them wrapped in pretty paper for me. The gift is the same and you may even have spent the same on both, but one speaks of care, love, time and thought. The other speaks of last minute convenience.

The way you gift-wrap your life really matters. It should be worked on as part of improving your serve. You can serve or you can serve with a smile; one is gift-wrapped the other isn’t. The wrapping paper that’s often in short supply is willingness. The scripture says that ‘if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable’.5 As all parents understand, making Mum or Dad a cup of tea because they asked is good, but making it from a willingness to bless is better.

Another wrapping paper in short supply is cheerfulness. ‘God loves a cheerful giver’.6 Why? Because it makes the gift look prettier. God is into gift-wrapping our lives. Jesus gift-wrapped his gift of life to the world all the time; people where drawn to him because of the beautiful way he presented his life. Jesus did not just do a miracle, he would enter a life and spend time with people. Jesus wrapped his life with peace, patience and empathy. And busy as he was, we often read that ‘Jesus stopped’ for an individual. He stopped for one widow, one sinner and one sick person. Jesus was a beautifully wrapped, accessible gift.

4) The Gift Opens Doors

I sometimes look at my life and ask, ‘How did I end up here? How have I managed to be only thirty yet doing some amazing things and living my dream?’ I can’t point to many big moments along the way, just lots of small ‘no one sees’ moments where I chose to improve my serve and give away my gift of life. I have discovered that the scripture is true which says: ‘A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.’7 The door to some places will only ever open to a giver; to a person who is committed to giving their life away. They end up in places that God can only entrust to true servants and good stewards.

If today you are striving to get into the presence of great opportunity or great company, then maybe you need to look at your life afresh and, instead of striving, start serving and giving,

We all have so much more we can give and we can all improve our serve. My prayer is simply that as you look at your world with this new understanding, you will decide before this day is through to go and give away your gift, the gift of your life.

1 John 3:16
2 Mark 10:35
3 Romans 4:4
4 2 Corinthians 8:2
5 2 Corinthians 8:12
6 2 Corinthians 9:7
7 Proverbs 18:16