Home Tools for your Journey June 22

Monday, June 22

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one antoher with whatever gift each of you has received.
—1 Peter 4:10

There are days when we feel anything but gifted. The project we’re working on is stalled; we can’t seem to call forth a single creative idea; our motivation is at an all-time low; the thing we’re most proud of is dismissed by someone we admire; the car has a flat tire and we can’t remember how to use a tire jack; our best parenting skills seem to have produced nothing but a petulant child; our boss reminds us that our production needs to increase. 

On those days, we wonder if there is any unique and important skill that we bring to the table of life. A natural response is to feel discouraged that we are not smarter, more capable, more talented. We can feel like life is berating us with the same painful comments as the childhood taunts we received on the playground.

Imagine what might happen in your life during those "ego deflated" moments if you felt the certainty of God’s touch on your particular life. Imagine knowing that even as you were being formed, God was weaving a tapestry of gifts that would be uniquely yours—gifts that only you could share with the world. Imagine how you might feel if we could somehow see those gifts as clearly as the morning sun that scatters the clouds away. 

You might find your own self glistening along with the sun, and a smile of self-knowledge might form on your lips. Like the determined quarter-back you might throw a scoring touchdown play immediately after a day of interceptions. So, on those days that leave you feeling like a spectacle of failure, try being tender with yourself. Let the failures go and prepare to give your gift again to the waiting world.

Gracious God, let me trust the exquisite pattern you have traced on my soul.