I received an email this week from a person informing me about Notre Dame’s first Black Valedictorian. In the 161 years, the University of Notre Dame has been awarding degrees, there has never been an African-American as valedictorian—until this year. Her name is Katie Washington of Gary, Indiana. She’s a 4.0 GPA student majoring in biology and minoring in Catholic social teaching.
Listen—this is the part I want you to plant in your conscience and always remember: According to the Northwest Indiana Times, Washington plans to continue her studies at Johns Hopkins University and follow in her father’s footsteps into medicine. Let me say it again: And follow in her father’s footsteps into medicine.
All this time, as she matriculated at Notre Dame—and I don’t know for sure, but I just believe it to be so—as she studied in Elementary, Middle and High schools, she had her sights set on what she wanted to be.
It is all right to have your sights set on what you want to be and what you want to do; there is nothing wrong with that. The problem sticks his head up when that’s all you do—decide what you want. Many people skip through life doing what they want, but they are miserable; they are making plenty of money; they have a nice family, a nice home, a nice job, but they feel something is missing; there is a big hole in their lives. Well, what is the problem?
The problem is not that God wants them to have a frown and not a smile. Jesus said that “I have come to bring you life and life more abundantly.” God didn’t send Jesus to hinder us, but to help us. He didn’t send Jesus to push us down but to lift us up. Well, what is the problem? Why is it that I have a great job, a great husband, a great wife, a great family, but I am still empty, still miserable?
Could it be that I have no talent for what I am doing? That could be it. But people can have a talent to do what they are doing but still be miserable. Why? We are more than our talents.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11 says, What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it?
It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
• wise counsel
• clear understanding
• simple trust
• healing the sick
• miraculous acts
• proclamation
• distinguishing between spirits
• tongues
• interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. (The Message Translation)
You were created with a talent(s) and a spiritual gift(s). The talent was given to you to help you to survive; put food on your table, clothes on your back, a roof over your head. The spiritual gift was give to you to build up the body of Christ.
Perhaps the problem is you have the talent correct but not the spiritual gift. Or, perhaps, the problem is you have the spiritual gift correct but not the talent.
Sometimes your talent and your spiritual gift are the same. Sometime they are not. Do you see how confusing it can be? This is why you need help with becoming all God intends for you to be.
“Derrick, I am beginning to hear and see what you are saying, but I still don’t quite get it. I am successful, the people on my job are nice, my husband and I get along, my wife and I get along, but I am still miserable, still empty, still unfulfilled. What is the problem?”
If you climbed this mountain by yourself—deciding your life’s purpose—than no wonder you are miserable, no wonder you are dissatisfied, no wonder you are still walking through the dark bumping into things, turning things over search for you, no wonder you asking and answering the wrong question, no wonder the hole is there. The question is not what you want, not what mom wants, not what dad wants, but the question is what does God want.
To be all God calls you to be, you have to set your sights on what you believe God calls you to accomplish in this world. It is all right to know what you want—peace of mind, joy, prosperity, making a difference, the right job—but also you have to know what God wants.
You see, when you know what God wants you to achieve, you will become more aware of the distractions that lure you away from where God wants you to be. When you are in tone with God, you know things that will pull you away from him such as, lack of worship, wrong kinds of friends, lack of prayer, and disobedience.
When you know what God wants you to achieve, you will know what skills, talents, and spiritual gifts you have that you need to enhance to achieve your objectives.
When you know what God wants for you, your talent and your spiritual gift will be aligned with his purpose for you, and misery will not tug at your life as it may be doing at this time.
We have let the world—our friends, our relatives, the media—define greatness for us. And a lot us have aligned our purpose with what the world says success and purpose are. Our society has built itself on self-centered philosophy instead building itself on the wisdom of God.
As long as we believe the world’s big lie that our lives are insignificant unless we do with our lives what others want, or what we want, we will live in a constant state of dejection, worthlessness and strife.
The problem is you are asking the wrong question; you are trying to please the wrong audience. The question is not what others want, not what I want, not what the world wants, but what does God want.
God should be your audience, not you or other people or the world—but God. Switch audiences. And misery and emptiness will release you. And you will begin to leap, and jump, and sprint towards your true destiny.
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