SPIRITUAL GIFTS: Strength or Weakness?

Spiritual Gifts:  Are They Strengths or Weaknesses?

This thought has been going through my mind a lot here recently.  A lot of the Sunday School classes are going through a spiritual gifts study right now and I’ve always known what mine were, or at least in part.  A couple of weeks ago I took a survey to find out if what I thought matched up with the results I might get.  They did and it got to me. 

You see, I’ve neglected my gifts, or at least neglected using them properly.  I scored highest (in fact tied in scores) on Administration, Shepherding, and Exhortation.  The next highest scores were Teaching and Giving.

Now back to the strength/weakness aspect that I’ve been thinking on.  I’m a slight (well, really a major) control freak. I have been blessed with a major dose of common sense and logic.  I think things through, from multiple angles, and usually figure out the best way to do things (at least to me).  This is a valuable asset.   But, I tend to not always display great amounts of patience when things aren’t going how I’ve worked them out. If things aren’t going the way I’ve planned I tend to freak out.

This brings me to the gift of Exhortation.  This gift has great power, but in the words of Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility.  In Proverbs 18:21 we are told that “The tongue has the power of life and death…”  When things aren’t going my way or how I’ve planned them out I tend to freak out and then start spewing hateful remarks out of my mouth.   

A while back God laid this verse on me as a meaning for what I’m supposed to do with my time on Earth.  Many of you may not believe me, but I got smart with God and asked him if he was really listening and if so for him to tell me what I was supposed to do.  I was driving around and it was like God was sitting in my passenger seat.  He told me clear as day that he wanted me to read Ephesians 4.  Now, I was in a kind of bad mood.  I kind of smugly asked him if he meant any particular verse.  And once again, clear as day, he said “12”.  I had never read this before.  I pulled over and opened my Bible.  It was an answer to my question.  “ To prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…”  That was all it said, and that was all it needed to say.

I wish that I could say that since that day I’ve done just that, but I haven’t.  I’ve caused more damage by spewing negativity around because I wasn’t happy.  It’s not about me.  I’ve got to remind myself this daily.

I guess what I’m getting at in all of this is that I’ve been using these gifts the wrong way.  It takes a whole lot less energy and effort to just give in and not use them properly.  I’ve got to work at doing better.  I’m supposed to be preparing people to build up the body of Christ.  So far all I’ve done is tear it down. 

Are you administrative or just a control freak? 

Do you use the gift of Exhortation to build people up in their times of need or do you bring everyone around you down?

Do you Shepherd people in God’s ways and teach them Biblical truths or is your flock scattered and always being attacked by wolves?  

You gift is something amazing that God has given you.  He didn’t give it to you by accident.  He made you for a purpose.  The question is are you going to turn this gift into a weakness or a strength?

I’m weak…

This had me down and I began studying my Bible.  I came across 2 Corinthians 12:9-11.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

AMEN!

An Observation from Beowulf

This post is a rambling of my train of thought, forgive me if it makes no sense.

I'm sitting here, alone on a Friday night, wondering what to do.  I could go to the movies, but it just seems like I'm paying for an escape of my own reality.  I'm tired of doing that though.  It is my go to move whenever I'm down. 

I need to be needed, and now I'm no longer needed in one of my areas of identity.  Someone has replaced me for filming high school football games on Friday nights.  I feel like part of me has been discarded.  Is this person better than me?  This is the thought that is running through my head right now.

I don't know who I am (truthfully I don't want to really look at who I am, because I don't like myself).  I've always tried to identify myself by the things I do.  I'm a student, a hard worker(of two jobs), an extremely amature camera guy, and most of all a Christian.  It's a whole lot easier to wear a persona than it is to be the true me. 

My biggest fear is that I won't be liked or accepted.  That I'll never fit in.  I've always tried to be what everyone else wants me to be and I'm getting tired of wearing all of these different versions of myself.  But what if people don't like who I am?

I've always stayed on the outside of things.  In one of my classes we are studying Beowulf and we were discussing the story from Grendel's point of view.  He's always on the outside looking in.  He's different and therefore not accepted by the Dane's at their mead hall.  Never did I think I would find some useful way to apply Beowulf to my life. but it looks like I have.  To everyone in the mead hall Grendel is a monster because he doesn't fit into their view of life.  He's an outsider who despises everything the mead hall life stands for.  He's a monster because he's different.

I don't want to be a Grendel.