You are a GIFT to the world. Thank you for being you.
My faith focus posts are generally a scripture reading, but I wanted to share a different focus on faith this week.
I want to talk about spiritual gifts.
It was at a Theology Pub Club session (years ago!) that the topic of Spiritual Gifts came up. Theology Pub Club (or TPC, as we called it), was an informal gathering of friends who talked about different aspects fo faith and religion. It was a loose gathering with very little structure and lots of engagement. Sometimes we met at someones house, but then decided that newcomers might nt be comfortable going to the home of someone they didn’t know. What’s better than a stranger’s house? A bar, of course!
We settle on meeting once a month, on a Tuesday at the Blue Fox Cocktail Lounge. Back then, they had a Taco Tuesday special where tacos were just $1 each (and tacos could be beef or chicken and included lettuce, tomato AND (optional) sour cream!).
ONE DOLLAR TACOS, great conversation and reasonably priced cocktails!
What’s not to love?!
Suffice it to say, it made for an enjoyable couple hours of eating, drinking (beer, soda or wine), and lively conversation with friendly, welcoming folks who enjoyed diverse perspectives.
While Theology pub Club attendees were generally just laypersons, a pastor might occasionally show up, though they were just participants and didn’t direct the conversations.
It was a pastor from a nearly ELCA congregation that happened to attend our TPC that month.
I don’t even remember how the conversation began or what topic we digressed from, but I recall being excited when she explained that God has bestowed spiritual gifts upon each of us.
There are times when I am uncertain of my place in the world, and what it is that have to ‘bring to the table’, (Am I the only one who has ever felt that way?), so I was curious and excited to know what the different spiritual gifts were- specifically what MINE are, and how I could or would or should use them.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
I don’t even know that I fully understand what each of the gifts are and how they are to be used, however I know, with every ounce of my being, that I want to be blessed with such gifts.
They (who is they?) say that we all have one primary spiritual gift, and may have others in varying capacities. If you don’t intuitively know what your gift is, how would you determine what it is?
There are several website and links that are designed to help you determine what your gifts are. I cannot tell you which is best or which will give you the answers you seek, however I found the Spiritual Gifts Survey on the Team Ministry site to be the a comprehensive questionnaire that helped discern and clarify what gifts I believe I was given.
I do not believe any of us move with 100% certainty through our lives. At one time or another, we all doubt ourselves and what we can offer to the world.
Therefore, I think it’s worth taking the time to consider that we all have gifts, and to make an effort to discern what your gifts might be. I encourage you to take the spiritual gifts inventory. Even if you are not a person ‘of faith’, you may well find that something within the results rings true to your core and helps you move with more confidence and understanding of your place in the world.
Peace to you. – Sheli
