God's Gifts are Irrevocable
Observing the number of Asian Indians that travelled on the same planes with me when going to and coming from California got me asking: Why is my flight from Dubai to San Francisco over ninety percent populated by Indians? Why, on my flight are there just a handful of Africans leaving San Francisco for Dubai while almost all the rest are Indians?
A related issue concerned me years ago. While doing my master's degree at University of California Berkeley, I wondered whether this school was an Asian academy. The number of Asian students was competing with that of the Caucasians. When I inquired about it, I was told that the many Asians (especially Indians) in America is a result of some specific exceptional mental ability which they have. That gift is so highly prized in the United States to the extent that their going to North America is usually overtly supported. What America covets in Indians is a gift that God graciously gave them; for a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven (John 3:27).
As a believer in Jesus Christ, I also wanted to know why this group of people whose nation cannot be described as Christian is so undeniably gifted that a superpower brings them into their fold. The response I heard from God was Romans 11:29, which says, ". . . the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." That means that when God bestows unto you a gift, He will never take it back. The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible uses the phrase "without repentance" instead of irrevocable, implying that what God graciously gave Indians will always be with them whether they are Christians or not.
I know that most people reading this article are black Ugandan Christians; I have good news for you too. Everyone of you received from God something priceless when you were conceived in your mother's womb. Discover that treasure and start blessing humanity with it. Then nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn; your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations their kings led in triumphal procession; you will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts (Isaiah 60:3, 11, 16 NIV).
It's possible that your God given talents are dormant now. Well, take as yours the command of Paul to Timothy: Stir up the gift of God that is within you (2 Timothy 1:6). Let it come from the depth of your spirit to surface of your soul where it can be a blessing. And when that happens, you will be richly rewarded.
There is a saying in America that God is not an Indian giver. I first heard it from Roberts Liardon (author of the God's Generals series) who I met twice this month. That proverb means that when God gives you a gift He will not return to repossess it as some indigenous American Indians used to do. The gifts you were born with have never departed from you; God has never and doesn't plan to retrieve them.
Don't be jealous and envious of the wonderful Asian Indians or anyone else who is receiving all the accolades; celebrate them, for in doing so you will be honoring their Maker. As you do that, ask that same Giver of good and perfect gifts in whom there is no variation or shadow of turning (James 1:17) to show you what He placed inside of you. When you find it bless Him and His people with it. The rewards now and for all eternity are enormous.
God bless you