The Color Blue and Peanut Butter Pancakes

05.31.14

Romans 12.6-8 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. NIV

All of us are going to approach our relationship with the Father differently. That’s why we are the Church Unified, not the church uniform. As it is in life with our humanness, our preferences, and our personalities, so it is and will be in the Spirit and the Church.

All of us are God’s children, but none of us were glopped out of the same mold – no, we were formed and crafted in God’s perfect will. We are not all the same but we are all uniquely brought by God to minister uniquely within the Church and to the communities around us. Those who love the color blue and eat pancakes with peanut butter will probably remain partial to blue and favorable to their preferred method of pancakes and their ministry in the Lord will be likewise unique.

That’s why Paul says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” If there is one thing the same in all of our lives, it is this: we are all given grace by God. That grace enables us to minister according to our preferences and personality. It isn’t a right or wrong thing; it’s just the way God has chosen for His people. It’s just the way the Church is to work.

Now that doesn’t mean if one isn’t particularly gifted in one way or another that he or she can’t minister that way, but it does mean that we will all express our faith according to the uniquely special way that God has deemed. God knows all about the color blue and pancakes with peanut butter.

With that, I think the biggest impression on me in this reading is this: if your gifting is mercy, then show mercy cheerfully. Talk about slamming on the brakes in the middle of rush hour! Cheerfully!? Showing mercy is perhaps easier on wee ones who don’t know any better. But handing out swats cheerfully? And showing cheerful mercy on one who has shown himself to be incorrigible, recalcitrant, willful, and mean? Now we’re talking a whole nuhther ballgame. Mercy in my mind’s eye is anything but cheerful. But the question remains how has God shown mercy to me?

If anyone is gifted to show mercy cheerfully, I don’t think I’ve ever met them. The one shown mercy may be cheerful, but the giver of mercy on the one who deserves the worst? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that. Ever! But that is what is expected in God’s Kingdom and among His people. Even with people like me who think mercy and cheerful don’t belong in the same sentence. Such is the wisdom and power of God. Cheerful mercy: there’s hope for an old recalcitrant like me. Who wants mercy without heart?

Father, today I am surprised by grace and surprised that a gift like mercy could even be colored a color like blue, or eaten like peanut butter pancakes. But cheerful mercy is what You desire from Your kids because You have shown us cheerful mercy when we deserve vicious wrath. Lord, in all the things I think I would ask for, I think I’d like to learn how to love the blue of this grace of Yours and how to eat it like peanut butter pancakes. May I be cheerful in mercy regardless of what I think it looks like – in Your Name, amen.