Pouring Into Your Giftedness

Yesterday I met with about 250 new first-year students and presented them with the Strengths Philosophy.  I told them that this coming year was going to challenge their fundamental assumptions and push them beyond what they could believe.

I also challenged the students to find something that makes their heart sing and get involved in it.  No matter what the club/sport/organization is, whether it be the Bass Fishing Club, a running group (what are these people thinking?), or a Greek organization.

I said that to be successful in college, they were going to have to pour everything they had into their academic work and so there needed to be one thing in their life that poured back into them.

I think about what work has drained me over the years and what work has energized me.  As you might expect, when I am working in an area of strength, I feel energized.  Time flies and before you know it, the task is achieved.  When I’m working outside my strengths, it is a drudgery.  Time creeps and it feels like there will never be progress made.

It struck me that when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well in John 4:34, Jesus said that his nourishment comes from doing the will of God.  Thus, Jesus is filled by doing what he is called to do and what he is gifted to do.

I believe pouring into our strengths that have been given by God nourishes us.  Here Jesus makes it clear, provides the example.  When we are in the will of God, our soul is nourished.  We are filled.  We are not lacking.

How do we pour into our unique gifts?

1.       Prayer-we must seek a relationship with the real and living God.  Forget about the “thou” and “shalt” vocabulary.  Get real and tell God your heart.  Then rest and listen.  There are two sides to this coin, the talking towards/at God and the talk coming from God to us.  In order to “hear” or rather discern God’s “talk,” we must be still, stop our distractions, and sit with our soul.

2.       Connect-I have found growth in my community of believers.  I resisted being a part of a church for a long time.  I knew the reputation the church has and I simply wasn’t interested in being a part of the politics, the gossip, the judgment.  But what I found was a completely different group!  I plugged in and began to find relationships and fellowship.  I have been able to stretch my wings and begin to use my gifts in fresh, new ways.

3.       Develop yourself- I grow through the written word..whether it is the Bible or a book on spiritual development.  Others may listen to podcasts or sermons, or and audio book.  Still others may attend an online workshop or a seminar in person.  Whatever your preference, open yourself to development.

4.       Output-you need to exercise your strengths in service to others.  I don’t care how you do it, but talk to your faith-group leadership about ways to plug in and exercise who you were created to be.

These four steps will help you grow and expand your gifts, your strengths.  You will find blessings beyond what you can imagine.  I believe in the power of the strengths you have been gifted with.  I believe in the power of God.  With those two things, how can you do anything wrong!

Showing Up to Creativity

It’s ironic to me that I have read Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way, do my Morning Pages faithfully and even bought additional Cameron books on writing yet I still believed I could muscle my way through without adhering to a regular practice of just showing up regularly to write.

Of course, in my all or nothing mind, I thought it necessary to write daily.  When I couldn’t get to writing daily, I found that weeks would slip by and I had written nothing except my daily journal pages.  So, instead of doing the same thing but expecting different results, I am making a change in my world.

I will now expect myself to write on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.  I will focus on a paragraph for the blog each appointment and then work on a larger-scaled project.  Hopefully this will allow me to show up for creativity, forming a routine writing practice, but not fall prey to the all or nothing mentality.

So far, here are the things I’m learning about myself and writing:

1.       Once I force myself to put ink to paper (yes, that’s correct, I still hand

write everything) the words flow more easily and even when I do struggle, at least I’ve got a draft on the page and everyone knows it is easier to edit than go from a blank space.

2.       Stop doing the same things but expecting different results.  Thank you Dr. Albert Einstein for defining insanity for us!  For too long now I have continued to behave in the exact same way but expected different results.  So, I guess I thought that not spending time writing would somehow result in written material.  Go figure.  I’m a little slow on the uptake.

3.       Do not fall prey to all or nothing thinking.  Something is better than nothing. I am trying to transfer this thinking to other areas of my life also such as diet/exercise/health!