Resources for Mission: Talents & Skills Risking Who You Are

Weekly Devotion – February 5, 2012 – Resources for Mission: Talents & Skills Risking Who You Are

Theme/Title:   B.Y.O.T. S. – Bring Your Own Talents and Skills

Scripture:       Exodus 35: 10-19 & 36: 2-3a; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-21; John 6: 1-14;

Media:             YouTube video EDS "Airplane" by AFallGuy4u

Reflection:

All my life I wished that I were more talented, more gifted, and more skilled.  I am not very good at a lot of things.  I am not a good singer, I never played the guitar.  I can’t paint a picture or rebuild a car.  I don’t play piano and I sure can’t dance.  My grades were so-so and reading came hard.  I have always been overweight and my athletic ability is mediocre at best.  All in all I feel somewhat inadequate and wonder how what I have to offer matters.

I don’t write this to get your sympathy nor to get you to shower me with praise.  I’m trying to show that we often don’t see our own gifts.  The truth is we all have gifts and talents and abilities some have more than others, some are extremely gifted but no matter the level we all have something unique to bring to our role as partners of God.  A master builder cannot build a cathedral by him or herself.  The master builder need stone masons and laborers and carpenters and blacksmiths and a host of others to complete the task.  Each one must bring their talents and skills and abilities to the job in order to see it through.

Our mission is to build a better world, to transform it into the creation of God’s dream.  We are pooling our skills, talents, resources and abilities together as we partner with God to shape others and ourselves into the bold people God needs for things to get better.   Whatever I am and whatever I can do and whatever I can access is what God needs me to bring to the build.  God is asking me to risk what I am and what I have and who I know so that my meager resources can be pooled with those of others and soon we will have more than we can use to build the tabernacle.  But first I must be willing to risk who I am, offering myself without pause or reservation, willing to put all my trust in God. 

We have to be like that man in Tiananmen Square who stood in front of the tanks holding his shopping bags and stopping them in their tracks.  He didn’t raise an army.  He wasn’t a charismatic leader.  He didn’t offer motivating oration.  He simply did what he could with what he had.  He risked himself and did more to affect the world then all the speeches and marches.  This is what God asks of us as we work to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world.

Meditation:

Think about a time when you worked with others to accomplish a task that you could not have done alone.  What did it feel like?  Remember a time when you were trying to accomplish something but you didn’t have what was needed to finish the job.  What did that feel like?  How did you complete the task?  Have you ever had to risk yourself in order to do what was right?

Prayer:

Pray for those who risk themselves.  Ask God to give you the strength and courage to risk yourself.  Pray that when the time comes you will offer your skills, talents and abilities in order partner with God and transform the world.