Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
It’s a simple concept, really: do more of what you’re good at instead of focusing on how to improve the areas where you struggle.
In the business/human resources world, Gallup’s Clifton StrengthsFinder concept espouses this. You complete a typical battery of questions, and you learn—or, perhaps, relearn—what your top five strengths are: Achiever. Adaptability. Harmony. Empathy. Learner. Self-Assurance. There are more than thirty, all told.
Paul’s message in today’s first reading from Romans 12 is much the same: Use your God-given gifts—ministry, teaching, preaching, and so on. We all have different gifts, gifts that come so easily to us that they don’t seem significant or important to us at all. And yet when we deny their value and fail to use them as the Lord desires, we resemble those dinner invitees described in Luke 14. We find excuses and rationalize why our presence at the table isn’t the most critical thing in our lives. When we do that, we waste our talents and displease God. Better, then, to offer gratitude for the charisms we have received… and put them to work praising the Lord and bringing souls to the Kingdom. Our presence isn’t optional. It’s vital.
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