Let’s talk about gifts.
I love talking about gifts, by which I don’t mean wrapped presents. I mean things we often call talents or abilities or skills or ‘things we’re fairly good at’. Theologians love debating the spiritual natures of gifts – what is a charism, how many are there, do / how they differ from the gifts of the Holy Spirit… but I’m going to make the theologians cringe by lumping them all together to talk about the general category of “gifts.”
Gifts are things that God gives you, uniquely, so that you can do good with them. Maybe you strengthened a natural ability through hard work, or maybe you’re just super naturally talented. Maybe both.
The point is: you’ve got things that (a) you’re fairly decent at and (b) those things can do good in the world. Also (c) you mostly enjoy doing them.
There are usually a few problems I encounter when it comes to talking about gifts.
Some people don’t know how to figure out what theirs are. (Or feel like they don’t have any.)
If that’s you, try this.
But other people feel paralyzed by figuring out which gifts to use and how to use them and if God has given me gifts I have to use them to change the world and oh my gosh, the pressure.
First: YOU are the gift. Before your talents and abilities and skills, there’s you. Your existence is a gift to the world.
This is not something to skip over; this is the main point.
If you’ve ever known someone who’s been incapacitated or has a severe disability or is very young or very old or has a bad flu or severe depression or perhaps is just plain worn out, you’ve known someone who isn’t in a position to be ‘using their gifts’. We don’t get our significance from using our gifts well. We don’t earn a right to be in society by using our gifts well. We don’t deserve God’s love because we’re using our gifts well.
Being > Doing.
Your being – your existence – is a gift. Whether or not you do, achieve, or accomplish anything, you are a gift. The world is changed by you being in it. God wanted you to be, and that’s why you are!
If this is not your foundation, no amount of using your gifts well is going to make things better.
So if we start with the right foundation – that our existence is a gift, and that being is more important than doing – where does that leave us with figuring out how to use our gifts?
It leaves us starting small, with the people who are actually around us. The wonderful thing about gifts is that when we use them, they not only bring us joy, but they serve others as well.
Maybe you’re good at keeping plants alive? Bring a succulent to someone with a black thumb and help them get off to a good start. That’s using your gifts well.
Do you like baking muffins? Well who doesn’t like eating muffins? You can bless a lot of people with a fresh batch of blueberry-lemon. That’s using your gifts well.
Perhaps you’re talented at untangling tech issues? Let me tell you, there’s an entire generation that will welcome it. That’s using your gifts well.
You don’t have to be a great orator or military leader or online influencer. You don’t have to be famous or popular or even known outside your small town.
You do need to embrace existence, delight in the small things, and cultivate a heart for others.
That’s how to start using your God-given gifts well.
