I always squirm in my seat a little when the spiritual gifts are mentioned. It makes me feel like everyone else has their show-and-tell project ready, but not me.
I tend to think of the spiritual gifts as someone’s “thing.” You know, like when one of your friend’s “thing” is singing, and the other has her beautiful crochets, another one has a green thumb, and another teaches Sunday school like it’s nobody’s business. They all have a “thing.”
And me? I don’t have a “thing.” Dropping the analogy, I don’t know what my spiritual gift is. Do I even have one?
Reading 1 Corinthians 12, I see that some gifts aren’t showy (like singing, or preaching, or leadership), but some are more quiet, though these are not directly listed. It just says some parts of the body are not seen (1 Corinthians 12:18-26).
In any case, the spiritual gifts are not to boast and feel all warm and fuzzy inside anyway, so I shouldn’t be trying to figure out my “thing” as if it’s MY “thing” at all!
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
1 Corinthians 12:7 NLT [emphasis mine]
So, I do have a gift, and it’s so that I can help others. I just can’t easily point at what it is quite yet. Maybe someday, after I’ve been helping out for a while, assisting others or volunteering, I’ll know what my gift is. Maybe then I’ll be able to see it.
For the past few years, I’ve volunteered here and there, but not much because I was pregnant and then raising a little child. I know, some women are out there in the soup kitchens with a baby nursing while they volunteer, but… that just wasn’t me. I was barely getting any sleep and fighting back the post-partum with the rest of my energy.
The volunteering I did wasn’t my gift, but I showed up anyway and I helped out and it was fine. I’m sure that as my child grows and becomes more independent of me, I’ll have more chances to actually help and use my gift, whatever it might be.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if months or years from now I’ll have a blog post explaining or using my spiritual gift? Wouldn’t that be cool? That’s something nice for me to look forward to. Again, not for myself but for others.
It would be nice to know what I’m good at (what my gift is) so that I can lean into it and truly help others with it! Mmm. Something to pray about.
Be blessed, stress less.
Dear Quiet
Dear Quiet 