Regifting

Yes, we've all done it. Regifting - taking a gift that we have received and giving it to another person. But have you ever given it back to the same person you received it from? I have, and I bet many of you have without even realizing it.

I was reading about Lilias Trotter last night. Lilias was born in England in 1853 and as she grew so grew two passions: one art, one ministry. Lilias was a very talented artist and was fortunate to find a teacher who saw her potential. She trained under Professor John Ruskin who said that if Lilias would focus on her art, "she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be immortal."

However, Lilias was also a Christian who was passionate about Christ and serving the lost and poor in London and eventually Algeria. She did not devote herself completely to her art but divided her time between art instruction/assignments and caring for women in the slums of London. At 26, her teacher pressed her to make a decision - to choose between art and ministry.

Now you may think that is an easy decision, but not so. First, Lilias knew that her artistic talent had nothing to do with her. It was completely a gift from God. "I know that I have no more to do with the gift than with the colour of my hair" she said. (natural hair color that is!) She also knew that it was possible for God to use her art to glorify Himself and encourage others. As she prayed for wisdom she came to the conclusion that "I cannot give myself to painting in the way he [Ruskin] means and continue still to 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness'"

As Noel Piper says in Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God, "[s]he was free now to throw herself wholeheartedly into her ministry in London" and eventually wholeheartedly into the country of Algeria as a missionary. She still enjoyed her art and still painted, but she had made a decision to keep it subservient to her passion for the lost - to give it back to God so to speak, instead of clinging to it and demanding her own way with it.

We all have gifts. Things that we have received from God - talents, resources, relationships, degrees, or positions that we could cling to and throw every ounce of time and energy into. Or we can take those gifts and give them back to the One who gave it to us in the first place. Remember we come to God with nothing of our own. Whatever we do have to give came from Him in the first place. I believe that by seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, Lilias Trotter did just what her teacher said she would do . . . "things that would be immortal."

I can post some of Lilias' art, but I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough room to post all the lives she touched.