When I was thinking of a verse to put on my cell group web page, Hebrews 10v23-25 came to mind. I chose the version from The Message, because of one phrase “Let us see how inventive..”

Observation – We’re not just called to encourage each other but we are suppose to be INVENTIVE. What a task!

Inventive derives from the verb invent and if you go check your dictionaries, it will tell you that to invent it means “create or design something that has not existed before”.

This means we need to be on our toes to think of new and original ways to encourage, love and help each other. It doesn’t stop there. This version says “Let’s see HOW inventive we can be…”. If I didn’t read this wrongly, it sounds like a challenge. And it is a challenge, when you are trying to invent something.

When I think of inventions, I think Albert Einstein. Simply because he’s really one of the greatest inventors of our modern day age. Not only that but because I suck at physics. Big time. Never could understand E=MC2 for the life of me.

In my sophomore year of college, I had to take a basic course of physics to fulfill my science requirements. My physics professor, Dr. Swatarie who has great brains and a wealth of experience having worked in NASA told us on the first day of class that teaching physics to non-science students was something he saw as a challenge for him. He shared that it was his aspiration was to re-invent us to become science people. Basic courses were always taken by students like myself who had zero or little knowledge about an area of study.

This he did, class on a nice day was never indoors. It was on the lawn and he always brought his kitchen tools or toys to illustrate. Not only that, on occasions that he heard me lamenting how bad of a physics student I was, he would gently rebuked me. Following his remarks, he would pass me a quote from a famous person the next time he saw me during class. Those pieces of post it pads of quotations still serve as a reminder to me whenever I feel like giving up.

At the end of that semester, the physics-cally challenged me not only passed the class but got a B+ for it. I wasn’t the only one, Prof. Swatarie successfully transformed his class of non-scientists to see how physics worked in our everyday lives.

We can learn two lessons from Professor Swatarie. He was inventive and he spurred the class on.

We should not just think of creative or original ways of encouraging one another. But we need to spur one another. Spur is a device with a small spike that a horse rider will use to urge a horse to move forward.

If you have ridden a horse before you know that to get it giddy-up, you’ll need to use both your legs and hit it hard against its rumps. It doesn’t hurt the horse but it does give the animal the idea that you want to move forward and how fast.

We are the same. We need someone to come along side us and hit us against our rumps so that we will keep moving forward.

Inventors push life to the limits. Prof. Swatarie did that. He pushed us to believe that impossibility and possibility is relative to how we see ourselves.

Christ isn’t just asking us push our own limits but also those around us. I’m going to borrow from Buzz Lightyear, “To Infinity and Beyond”, guys.

My church is in the thick of a series – Gifts from God. Last Friday, our small-group leader asked us if we have discovered our gifts. This leads me to this week’s deep thought. When I think of Spiritual gifts, I think of Christmas. Every time I unwrap my Christmas presents, I get this thrill when I first discover what’s in each wrapper.

Same idea – we should be just the same about the gifts from God. Often, we spend too much time digesting Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 that we end up not doing anything at all.

In Matthew 25v14-28, Jesus tells of a man going on a journey and decides to entrust his possessions to his slaves. So he calls them one by one and gives each of them a portion of his estate according to their abilities. (Matthew 25v15)

Just Do It – One of the best tag lines in advertising is probably Nike’s – Just Do It. When I think of Spiritual gifts I’d say just do it. Get involved. We don’t know how good or bad we are at something until we do it.

We often end up like the servant in verse 18 because we spend too much time trying to find “our calling”, “a ministry that suits us”, “our Spiritual gift” and the list goes on. What does the master say to this servant? He reprimands him and takes whatever the servant has been given and gives it to the another! What we don’t realize is that God has already entrusted us with something, it doesn’t matter what we do, we just need to do something about it.

I find this quite contrasting since he (the master) doesn’t comment on the results of the first two. He praised their efforts. From this we can conclude that all God is requiring from us is just do it.
When we are just doing it, there are times we’re going to also realize that things are not working out as planned. I like to suggest that for us to do the long haul, we need to establish three areas in our lives to sustain us while we exercise our gifts. They are Faith, God-Confidence and Pre-Decision.

“Dash” of Faith – One of my favorite movies is “The Incredibles”. I love it so much because the characters in the story reflect so much of us.

Dash couldn’t wait to use his super power. He ran into a couple of fixes but he never quite thinks that second thought. He just did it. We need that Dash of faith that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 19v13-14. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is made of children. I think God wants us to be like that, totally trusting Him, putting our faith completely in Him.

God-Confidence – There’s another character in the movie that I love so much because she knows who she is and no one messes with her – Edna Mode.

I love it when Edna says “Supermodels! Heh! Nothing super about them…. I used to design for *gods*!” We need Edna’s attitude. She was so sure of her gift and who it served. Likewise, our confidence must be like that – our gifts serve a purpose – God!

Edna is not a super but she was so proud of her role – designing super suits. When we find out what we are good at, be proud of those things. They are God-given! They are meant to serve a super plan – God’s purpose.

Hobbit’s Decision – My last illustration comes from a hobbit by the name of Frodo. If you have seen The Lord of the Rings, you’ll know that Frodo wished the ring was never found by him.

Sometimes we are like Frodo, we wished we weren’t given a task. I like the advise Gandalf (Frodo’s mentor) gave him. It is up to us to decide what to do with the time that is given to us.

This brings me back to Matthew 25v14-28. God doesn’t ask us for anything us except our decision to do something with what He has given us. Imagine what God can achieve if we just make that small decision.

I chose these three characters because they were all small in stature. Yet, each of them did BIG things. We may be small in our faith but if we had the Dash’s faith, Edna’s confidence and heed Gandalf’s advice, imagine what God can do through us.

We don’t serve just any god. We serve a God who’s a Super. If that being the case, aren’t we children of a Super? So which super are we?