GIFTS AND TALENTS

"We have," St. Paul says, "different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." (Romans 12: 6-8)

For years I looked at this list and said, that's nice, but I have none of those gifts, and went on.

The other day it occurred to me that in fact I have ALL of these gifts. And so do you! So do all of us.

Do you not have the gift of showing mercy? To your children when they mess up? Your spouse when they disappoint you? Your pets? To your friends? To other people's children? To stray animals? To strangers? Do you not sometimes yield the way to someone whose car cuts you off in traffic or someone who cuts in line in front of you in the supermarket? That's showing mercy to them, but Paul is asking you to do it cheerfully, gracefully, with a smile. If you have to, remember the times you may have done the same, or the times someone did it and you suddenly recognized the person as an old friend and how your attitude changed, or imagine they have a sick child they are trying to rush home to.

Do you not have the gift of leadership? At home? At work? Almost everyone has someone looking up to them or depending on them. Even homeless people may have someone they are bringing food to or showing the way to a soup kitchen or a shelter. Paul is just telling you to work hard at it. Don't do a half-hearted job of parenting or supervising others at work.

Do you not have the gift of contributing to the needs of others? Your family? Your neighbors? Your church? Charities helping people or animals, local or far away? Do so generously.

Do you not have the gift of encouraging? Of course you do. We all can encourage others as we go through life, whether they are family members, the new employee where we work, the tired clerk or waitress, the frightened stranger who is lost, the sad-faced customer, everyone we come in contact with.

Do you not have the gift of teaching? Of course you do. You don't need to be a professional teacher to teach. You teach your children, your friends or strangers when you tell them about a new shortcut to town, your employees at work, and anyone you tell about Jesus.

Do you not have the gift of serving? Of course you do. We all serve one another in one way or another. Whether it is in housework or yardwork at home or the services we perform on the job, we need to do it cheerfully and diligently.

"Ah," you say, "but what can you do with prophesying? I am not a prophet." Not in the Biblical sense of a prophet, perhaps, but we all have the ability to look at a neighbor's kid and we've all heard ourselves say something like, "that kid's going to wind up in jail or worse if he doesn't straighten out." Or even, "that gal's going to end up in a ditch if she keeps driving like that on icy roads." We prophesy how our own kids are going to turn out, how things on the job are going to work out, how things in our country or the world are going to succeed or fail. You may be in charge of planning for a group, a business, a school, a church, or a government. We have the gift of forecasting the future based on our knowledge and experience. Paul is asking you to use it in proportion to your faith in God. Take Him into account in your planning.

We all have all the gifts we need. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in their use. We may be the only Gospel our neighbors ever read.

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVES
I stared at the photograph for a long time, but I couldn't tell if it was a picture of a beach with ripples of water and distant mountains seen across a lake or bay, or of a desert with ripples of sand and mountains beyond the dunes.

Only the mountains were the same.

Perspective.

Is my life, I wondered, a desert, a beautiful but land-locked lake, or a salty wide-open ocean filled with endless possibilities?

And it came to me that my words and actions will show it clearly to others, even when I am not sure myself.

What do people see in me? What do they see when they look at you?

MY GIFT?
Over and over we are told to witness for Jesus. I'm sorry, but I'm just not very good at that sort of thing. I have no great testimony to give. I never took drugs or drank or smoked or caroused. I've led a very quiet life, although I'm sure I've given my guardian angel some gray hairs (Do angels get gray hair? :-) ). If he thought he was getting a nice quiet librarian-type who liked to write stories, he was in for a big surprise. Or two. I can hardly go five minutes without getting into trouble.

But I do want to be a part of the work God is doing. I do want to serve Him. I do want Him to widen my world. I do want to see others as He sees them, to help others, and to share His love with them.

I pray about this and tell Him that I want to serve Him, and I cry because I always mess it up when I try to speak of the Gospel.

The other day when I prayed, I asked Him to give me the words to say. And it suddenly dawned on me that my gift for sharing is in the inspirations He gives me, the "revelations" I receive now in my morning quiet times and have throughout my life, not in the way of "spreading of the Gospel" by buttonholing strangers on the street as I had supposed.

In my stories and my poems and in such a way as this one, lie my talents.

We all have differing abilities. We are what we are--what He made us, each of us fashioned in a unique way with individual needs and strengths, dreams and hopes, talents and gifts.