Are Gifts Like Bumper Cars?
Meridy R. | June 13, 2017
According to Gallup Daily tracking, only 32% of employees in the U.S. are engaged -- meaning they are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace. That leaves the majority who are basically disconnected from the goals and mission of their company. Why is the number so low? I’m sure millions of dollars are spent each year studying employee engagement so I probably won’t come up with groundbreaking answers to that problem. But, I do wonder if it can partly be attributed to the fact that people don’t take the time to know themselves well enough to discover what their gifts are.
Natural gifts are how you are wired from birth, and can be distinct from spiritual gifts. We could also refer to them as key motivated abilities or natural bents. Each of us is born with gifts from God to be used in specific ways. One way to gain insight into what our gifts are is to look back over our life, asking ourselves two questions:
What did I do well, that I would consider a success?
What did I enjoy doing and why did I enjoy it?
When you intersect the two, a pattern of natural gifts will begin to emerge. This was such a fun exercise for me. Part of our prep work for a leadership seminar that Eric and I took a few years back required us to compile a list ten things that meet those two criteria. At the end I was able to look back over the list and say, “I’ve actually done some good things! And not only that, they were successful! And even better, I enjoyed them!” Seems simple, but it was eye opening.
Eric discovered through this process that his key motivated ability was an Avid Learner. It answered the question of why he was always questioning if he should be doing something different than what he was doing. A desire to learn new things by doing was always tugging at him. It helped him understand himself and why he thinks like he does. It helped him realize that he wasn’t aimless, but he was always going to have the drive to learn new things. This realization helped him figure out how to channel that gift for good instead of being frustrated by it.
Why does it matter?
Why do we sometimes feel threatened when someone else succeeds or receives praise? Why are we driven to receive recognition or shine more brightly than others? If we were still in the Garden of Eden we would never compete with each other. If we were aware of how we are wired by God, competition wouldn’t matter. In the economy of the garden winning and losing aren’t part of our identity. In the garden your name would have reflected what you’re good at. Our gifts don’t have to bump up against each other: they may even be more narrow than we think.
As we get older and mature more narrowness is displayed. When we are younger typically we will look at the makeup of the body and decide we can be the entire arm. Then we realize over time that possibly we aren’t such a good hand, so we say “I’m not such a good hand, so I’m the whole arm but the hand”. Then we get beat up some, and realize we are just the elbow, or even just the tip of the elbow. This is when we trade idealism for trust and declare, “God made me the tip of the elbow and praise God.”
The older I get the more comfortable I become with my brokenness and my giftedness, and wearing them side by side.
I heard Nancy Ortberg speak at MissioNexus two years ago and she said this: “The older I get the more comfortable I become with my brokenness and my giftedness, and wearing them side by side.” I’ve pondered this idea quite a bit since then because it resonated with me so powerfully. Something in her statement freed me from the lure of attempting to be gifted where I’m not. It also released me from the self-protective drive to appear like I’ve got it all figured out, don’t need anything from anyone, and don’t have weaknesses. If I let go of those tendencies I can focus that energy on where I am gifted. Everybody wins.
Three ways to love people with our gifts:
by choosing not to use our gifts, or withdrawing them; not everyone needs a tip of the elbow all the time and that is ok!
choosing to operate outside of our gifts; avoiding the “I don’t do windows” mentality, we don’t have the luxury of only operating only within our gifts in the stewardship of the Kingdom
using our gifts; when we are intentional about growing in our gifts we are free to use them to bless and serve others
Jesus, free us the trap of perceiving that our gifts are in competition with others.
Give us grace to replace our idealism with trust and praise you for how you’ve wired us.
