Donor’s gift

April was organ donation awareness month. There were education flyers around my workplace to build awareness and to dispel myths. Flyers encouraging people to give the gift of life. There were a lot of misconceptions that I had about organ donation, I did not realize that I had. As I journaled this past week about the characteristics of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t help but think of the coorelation with organ donation; some of the characteristics included gift, giver of life, life sustainer, etc.

As I laid down to sleep, I thought about the gift that God offers. He doesn’t put us on a list where we have to dot all our “i’s” and cross all our “t’s” to qualify. It is not a list where we wait for months or years hoping for our name to come up. He is there with the gift, ready as soon as we call on His name asking for Life. Yet so often, we treat God’s gift as if we are on a donor list. We think we have to get our life in order on our own before we can even come to Him. Yes, there may be things that need to change in our life, but change will come through Him once we accept His gift.

The other thing I thought about, which applies greatly to my own walk with God is how we use the gift He has given us. When a donor receives an organ, the have no choice about using it. Thier body may reject it, just as our flesh tries to reject what God has given us. However, if the gift is received it will serve the purpose it was intended by the giver.  They may have a part to play with certain medications or diet and exercise, but if a heart is transplanted it will beat and pump blood through the body without any effort from the recipient.

God offers each of us the gift of salvation. Jesus was the donor of that gift. We choose to receive His donation or not. It has already been donated, and the only expiration is our physical death. But each person has also been given gifts, through our talents and abilities. Just as an eye can not perform the function of a lung, or a liver perform the function of a heart, we each have a function to perform that is God given. Each person has a different expression of their gift of talents and abilities. This gift is ultimately given to benefit others and serve a kingdom purpose.

Just as organ donation is needed when one part fails or another overworks, when one Christian fails or another over performs, it impacts every other part of the body of Christ. Every time I fail to use my gifts for His plans and purposes, I reject Christ’s donation. When I reason with what I feel He has asked me to do, I reject His donation. When I excuse away my under or over performance, I reject His donation. My actions say “His gift is not enough to empower me to do what He asks of me.” Or worse my actions say, “His gift is not enough and I have to fill in the gap because otherwise everything will fail.”

The gift of life is a precious thing. Our Heavenly Father was the first donor for life; He donated His Son to give us an eternal life with Him.  God has blessed this world with the knowledge of ability to continue life through organ donation. Christ donated His entire life so that we could have life in Him. It is important that we not only accept His donor gift, but that we also use every gift He has given us to its fullest potential. We shouldn’t reject any part of the donor’s gift through our words and actions, but should use it to bring glory to the One who gave it all.