What to do with our gifts

In recent weeks, I’ve had the pleasure to meet up with several friends, some of whom I haven’t met for a while. As I listened to their goings-on and what they were doing in life, it occured to me that some of them were thriving and growing, and others, less so. One reason was simply because they were able harness their natural gifts at their workplace, and therefore become more successful.

Some others, on the other hand, found it rough going. Sometimes it was because I saw that they were not playing to their strengths, and found themselves doing something that did not allow them to use their gifts to optimise their work performance and hence enjoyment. I saw how 6 months made a huge difference as it became clear that a friend of mine had become vastly more articulate, having now a very big picture view of certain processes, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy her work. In a way, it was as if her work had magnified her gifts, and I was certain that she was primed for success.

To be good at certain things and thus crafting a niche that adds value is, of course, very different from being passionate about a certain kind of work. So I shall put the passion variable out for a moment and talk more specifically about gifts and aptitudes. And my question is: what ought we do with our gifts?

I guess at the broadest level, our gifts may give us a clue of what kind of work we may be best suited to do, what sort of industries we might feel comfortable working in. Beyond that, they also make up our potential; how, given this or that gifts, so and so has the potential to really be very successful in his/her field. These were the kinds of talk bandied about and it did make me wonder a little about my gifts and my suitability for my job and how it would aid my career.

Obviously, if you know anything about me, if I were given just a little time to daydream, I’d often gravitate towards daydreaming about how awesome I could turn out to be. How I could use my gifts so excellently that one day I could make such a huge difference to the organization and perhaps to society. I guess the people around me also had faith in my potential. And then, in a timely manner, I snapped out of it.

When Christians think of gifts, we think of them as being blessings gifted from God; blessings we need to use well if we want to be good stewards. To be frank, most of us don’t really know what to do with it, or how we ought to use it well. In any case, the good Asian parent would say that excelling in them would be the perfect way to glorify God. Through the years, I’ve come to see that this is very pernicious thinking. A kind of specious biblical adage that parents love to repeat. But we are being disingenuous because it’s not clear how we are necessarily glorifying God when we use our gifts excellently.

Obviously, these are not necessarily falsehoods as well. Yes, it is true that if we excel in what we do, and intentionally use them in certain ways, we can glorify God. But if we are being honest and if we truly think we are working for our master, and that the kingdom is truly important, then we must draw attention to Jesus in very explicit ways as truly ‘glorifying god’ through our gifts:

We can be so good at our work that we help those that are weaker, and in doing so, tell them about God’s love and compassion for us, and show them that we are willing to love and care for others despite being competitors. We can use them so excellently in work in ways that clearly add value to society, by growing an organization that helps to set important agendas for society that can bring positive change; and then one day when we can give a speech, perhaps we can speak of what really motivated us, and how Jesus truly saves. But that’s surely a more roundabout way isn’t it? And how often do we forget to even utter his name?

Having spoken to many on the topic of career and working life, there are always endless considerations to weigh, and so too, very many wonderful analyses pointed out by analytically sharp friends. You know, there are one million and one ways you can get your career to advance, and so many different things you can watch out for or do. Yet one friend spoke something vastly different. He mentioned that work-life balance is really important. Because it’s important to have sufficient time and energy to serve God and others within and without the church. Now that’s something new.

Now then, notwithstanding the various ways we can serve our colleagues at work, or to see our work as a kind of service to others and God, might we then consider a slightly different perspective to work and giftings? What if we saw our gifts as opportunities to be so efficient at our work – not so much to get a much vaunted position or promotion – but so that we can spare more time to invest in lives outside of our vocation? What if, instead of the 8 hours it typically takes, we are so gifted that we can complete our work in 4 – not so that we take on more and expedite our career progression, but so that we can put work aside and put the remaining 4 hours to prepare for a bible study?

Nothing I have said should suggest that we don’t put our best effort into doing the work we are assigned. Rather, I’m suggesting that we should use our gifts well so that we have more opportunities to bless others with God’s word – in a way, a more direct way of speaking, thinking, and singing of God in our lives. As I prepare to journey through a new chapter of my life, I look back fearfully at every little thing I’ve written about adulthood and working life – many Christian men and women seem to be too absorbed by it, so much so the flame that once so passionately glowed for Christ now flares for another purpose. I fear the same for myself.

J.I. Packer once described Christian endurance as a long-distance race, and we all need to persevere for that prize of final glory. What what does that require?

“… what perseverance requires is a sustained exertion of concentrated effort day in and day out – a single-minded, whole-hearted, self-denying, flat-out commitment to praising and pleasing the Father through the Son as long as life lasts… This sustained inward effort, raised to the limit of what you can do with your brains, gifts, and energy God has given you, is one central aspect of Christian holiness, one without which a person’s supposed holiness would degenerate into self-indulgent softness.”

J.I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness

If correct, then it means our entire lives are a constant struggle, a battle which will become incredibly costly if we allow complacency to fester. As long as we breathe, we strive to please the Father through the son. And anything beyond that is noise. Notice here that Packer does refer to our gifts; and unlike what our parents or friends or career counsellors may make it out to be, our gifts are only one of the many things that if used properly, could aid us towards sustaining that inward effort to please God.

Imagine then if we used our gifts so excellently, thus leaving us more time not to do more, but to do less – to ponder and rest upon God’s words. What if we could reserve more time to help other working folk hear God speak his word to their lives again, to remind them of the kingdom they belong to, to sing His word to them and together submit prayers and supplication in the name of the Son?

D.A. Carson once exposited Matthew 25, referring to it as one of Matthew’s kingdom parables. v14-30 records the familiar parable of the talents, in which those that had used the given ‘talents’ well and brought returns to investments for the master were well rewarded. This passage has often been explained as us using our gifts well as good stewards, bringing glory to God.

But Carson tells us that this can be read in similar terms as the command in Chapter 6 to lay up our treasures in heaven –  in which we are encouraged not mainly to ‘guard our hearts’, but actually to choose our treasure. Here, in Chapter 25, we are to improve our master’s assets. But how? Through increasing conformity to Christ: by witnessing to others, giving, suffering for good, growing in righteousness. These are all treasures moth and rust cannot destroy.

If true, then in a sense, even our gifts do not truly matter in God’s economy; and it is the development of Christlike character that is truly a return to investment – an effort that will earn the praise of our master on that day. May we then use our gifts in ways that help us better enlarge his kingdom and mould our character, as we persevere to preach the word to others.

Signing off,

Fatpine. 

Sailing through life

If you’re approaching the twenties, are in the twenties, in your mid-twenties, or even your late twenties, you surely have been forced to grapple with the question of knowing or not knowing what you want in life. It’s not as difficult as people often make it to be, but it always seems seems to be a cause of great vexation. Many times, we feel frustrated because there’s a pressure to know what you want, and there’s a kind of feeling of inadequacy having seen many people tell you of the strategies they are taking to get to their plans, or even to have a plan itself.

Over the past few days, I’ve been meeting a lot of new people, and many of them have quite a clear indication of what they want, and are passionately pursuing it. I think that’s admirable, and all that is fine. But sometimes it makes me feel a little inferior because I really don’t. I hear of grand plans, of clear directions, of the little steps that they take, of being strategic, of extended planning, of being pragmatic. All these revolve around the end destination. But what if I don’t have one?

And indeed, I don’t think I do. I guess some people just think I’m being spoilt and indifferent to my future, perhaps they think I’m privileged, perhaps because I’m not ambitious, or perhaps, I’m just too short-sighted, just too naive. It’s possible these are true. But maybe you feel this way too. I wonder if it’s just that there are simply, different layers to this question. Perhaps when people talk about “knowing what you want”, they refer to choosing a specific major, or ending up in a certain industry, or being hired by a certain company, or being in a particular position, doing a certain kind of work. Even if they can’t be sure, they want to maximise the probability of ending up there, of being chosen. Well, if that’s what knowing what you want means, then I think it’s okay that I really don’t know.

God has a plan for us; some of us are blessed to “know” it, most of us just walk a step at a time, while others put plans into God’s planner. But I think, if I may venture to posit, that what exactly we do, or end up doing is not really a matter of God’s concern. Some may have a clear desire to be an effective policymaker, and thus work strategically in that direction. But at the end of the day, God determines the outcome, and guess what? The world will still revolve without you. By all means, if we are blessed to have clear thoughts of what we think might be useful way to live your life, go ahead and pursue it, but don’t forget that God is less concerned about what you can do, but really about what you do in response to Him.

Tonight I had a talk with an acquaintance who is so crystal clear about what he wants, how he’s going to get there, and how he does things pragmatically and strategically, with little margin for error, and high probability for success. He very un-subtlely advised me on what I should do to earn success, to make most of my time, to cut my losses and maximise my gains. My younger self (which is not really much younger) would have had a very certain reaction to such a brilliant individual. That is, I would’ve felt so inferior that this would propel me towards greater self-study and employ more effort to upgrade my brain, relook my plans, and make a greater comeback to feel better about myself. I know this, most of my undergraduate years were like this! While it did made me wildly productive, and while it was a very useful intellectual behaviour, I could have done most of it without any feelings of insufficiency, or to think of it as a competition. At the end of the day, I have to humbly admit that this is what I am – I’m not that great, not that smart, not that perceptive, and it’s fine being where I am. Therefore, I was relatively unmoved this time.

While I pondered in my heart, the things that he said, part of it was reflexively in a little frenzy – I wanted to rush home to start reading things, start drawing great plans, but then I thought again and realized that we value very different things. Yes, at the heart of it, the question is knowing what you want, but how this question meant different things to us. And then I thought back about what a pastor said recently about his life, which I will quote here. This pastor said that every morning, he wakes up and opens his bible to read a few things to himself written on its first page. I have also taken up this habit, and I try to read the same words written on my bible:

All the main things that charm me the most, I sacrifice them to his blood. When i survey the wondrous cross, on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain I count as loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.

I will consider my earthly existence to have been wasted unless I can recall:

~ A loving family

~ A consistent investment in the lives of others

~An earnest attempt to serve the God who made me

It is right that these three things can be achieved through our career. We might want to provide the best out of love for our family; we might want to use our career to improve the lives of others, we might use it as a form of worship to our God. These, I do not deny. But I also know this is not the path for everyone. Some, perhaps you, know that we best serve others through our intellect, some, through the resources we easily have… others, like me, may serve others better just by listening to others, or even spending quality time, or writing to them. Not everyone finds the same way. But one thing is clear, it’s less of of knowing what I want to do, but more of knowing what God really wants.

I find that when this is anchored in our hearts, then our masts are set right, and our sails will naturally catch the wind. Even though God knows His plans for us, we don’t. And living through life is indeed like sailing a boundless sea, we just need to be ready for Him to nudge us into the right places when His time is right. That way, perhaps we can be a little less fearful even if we aren’t as certain as others appear to be. Not that we appear noble in taking the road less travelled, but that we must have courage to go where God calls us to.

Timidly,

Fatpine.