What is in your hand?”  It is a direct excerpt from a conversation God and Moses had on the occasion of Moses and his doubts. 

God had a mission for Moses but Moses was a bit skeptical.  “What if the people you want me to lead do not believe that I am to take them out of slavery?”  So, God tells Moses to take the everyday tool that he was very accustomed to from his years working with Jethro in Midian as a shepherd, a staff.  He was to throw it to the ground.  Read all about it in Exodus 4.  

Moses knew the purpose of his staff.  A staff is to shepherd what a hammer is to a carpenter or what a spreadsheet is to an accountant.  A staff is to a shepherd what a lesson plan is to a teacher or a wrench is to a mechanic.  A staff is a tool.  We all know what to do with our tools.  But now God wants him to release that staff.   And when he does, the staff turns to a snake and God says, “Do this and the people will believe that the God of Abraham has appeared to you. Release this staff Moses and I will make it powerful for the purpose I have for you! “

This brief episode in the life of Moses calls out the potential impact our tools and gifts are to the Kingdom, when we release them for greater purposes.  “Release it to increase it,: to use Mike Slaughters phrase. 

However, think about that act of “releasing.” The gift you have in your head or your hands or heart is unique to you.  Releasing it is not a simple thing. 

Seems we never really release one of those gifts unless we surrender our plans or expectations for it.  So long as I have my agenda for how my gift, my ability, my passion will be used, I have put my qualifications on the release. The surrender is conditional. My pride creeps in a bit. My thoughts about how things should turn out.  My little roadmap for my life sets the agenda.   

Some time back I experienced a season of transition, which I must admit began with my little roadmap. “I will move forward with my gifts, if the situation fits my expectations, my plan.”  When an opportunity came along that did not fit those expectations or conditions, I almost dismissed it.  Thankfully, someone close to me challenged me to be open, to surrender.  To let God and his unfolding story redefine the story I had planned out.  

Face it; there is often the need for some humility at this point of release.  Perhaps the place for me to release my gift is a small place, a humble place.  Maybe I will consider it beneath me.  Or, maybe that act of surrender will put me in a new environment where I no longer am in control.  This can be humbling stuff.

This is exactly the place where God does his greatest work.  The bible is full of small humble places.  (Think of Paul on a dusty Damascus Road.  Or, Jesus and in a small out of the way place called Nazareth.)  The bible is full of stories where a character released their gift in a humble place and God did a great thing.

So maybe releasing is about humbling.  Maybe releasing is about removing the conditions. Maybe releasing is about giving up control.  But we have to release it to increase it. 

So the questions remain, what is in your head, hand and heart?  Can you surrender your gifts to the God who has a purpose for your life? 

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Week 5 - What Is in Your Hand – Identify and utilize the ordinary gifts God has given you. from Dakotas UMC on Vimeo.