how to spend your life...

Well lookie what we have here...

Gifts.

(from under our tree 2008)

And, chances are, you have a few of 'em.

Gifts.

Things that you've been gifted to do.  Special abilities or talents.  A thing you can do better than almost anyone else you know.

Know what yours are?

Here's the thing.

Can you make money off of doing that thing you've been gifted to do?  Does there currently exist in the World (or does there seem soon to be) a way for you to take the thing you do and get it out there in the World to people who will give you money in exchange for you taking the time to make and give them that thing?

If your answer is 'yes'--hooray for you--you have the chance to live a life fulfilled.  

'Cause you and I both know it's much better to spend your life doing something you love in exchange for money than to spend it punching someone's else's clock trading away nothing but the hours of your life for pay.

But, even if your answer is 'yes', you have something to worry about.

What if you're good at more than one thing?

What if you're 'called' or 'gifted' to do something but 'talented at' or 'able to do' many things and (to make matters worse) what if the things you 'can' do are higher paying or more fame or ease inducing or praise begetting than the thing you 'must' do?

What if you exchange calling for perceived success/riches/fame/acceptance and ease?

You're in trouble if you do that.

So, if you have a 'gift' make sure you keep it in front of your eyes all the days of your life and just decide to 'do' that gift regardless of every other pressure that rises up to try and assail you.

Now, what if you have a 'gift' but can't make money off it?

Well then, find the best, most fulfilling 'job' (where you trade your skills and time for money) you can, do it well and find ways in the rest of your life to exercise your 'gift'.

You'll probably be alright if you do that.

But...

What if you have a 'gift' but you're lazy or fearful?

What if you so fear rejection that you just can't find a way to take that step of faith out into an arena where you display your gift for all to see?  Well, if you never try--you're right--you'll never get rejected but you'll be sure to fail because to never try is to fail.

But if you're lazy?

Imagine, someone clearly gifted to do a thing that no one else can do.  Imagine that person knew they were gifted and others knew it too.  Imagine though that that person decided that instead of making the sacrifices necessary to pursue their gifting they'd prefer to just take it easy, spend time on the couch and lying in the sun, eating out and lazing away their days in contemplation.

Do you think they'd be happy?  I don't think so, because to be truly called to a thing and never do it seems a denial of an essential truth of your personhood (never mind of your Maker...) and that kind of rejection can't be easy to live with no matter how 'nice' your life seems otherwise.

More importantly, can you imagine how impoverished their circle of relationships, and in the case of someone exceptionally gifted, their community, country and perhaps even an entire culture would be because they weren't able to 'man up' and do the thing they were placed on the planet to do?

I have two friends I'm thinking of as I write this.

Both are gifted.

One is doing what it takes (and suffering mightily for it) to make a way in the World with his gift.

The other is lazing away his days, thinking about things, but never stepping up to the plate and hanging 'em out there.

I learn from each.

The one inspires me.

The other inspires fear in me.

The end result--for me--is a deepening humility wherein I buckle down and commit and re-commit to being and doing who and what I've been made to be and do.

How 'bout you?

T