I can't choose

I have a couple of Spiritual Gifts that are operating in my life. My primary gift is teaching and my secondary gift is mercy. What is interesting is that I did not choose the gifts (they were given to me) and I cannot choose how to exercise them in the church (that is chosen for me). For one reason or another God had it so that I was passed over for numerous opportunities to teach adults for an extended period of time. In my flesh I felt really badly about that and all of the usual questions came into my mind that sprang from my being self-absorbed: Am I not good enough? Did I say something wrong? Did people complain about me? and on and on they went. And I almost missed one of the more exciting things that has happened to me in the ministries God has called me to - the opportunity to teach children in a dynamic, high-energy setting with people that have extraordinary talent.

The exercise of Spiritual Gifts strengthens the church (1 Corinthians 12:7). I now know that God moves people into places in His church where there gifts will strengthen it. I am going to try to not have a long face or become self-absorbed when I do not get to exercise my giftedness in a particular way. The only thing I can do is sit back and marvel that He uses me at all in the loves of people that He loves very dearly.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more