February 24
Strengths and Weakness
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. ––Romans 12:4-5 NLT
As a driven A-type person, I wasted a lot of energy in my 30s and early 40s trying to get better at things that, in retrospect, weren’t really worth the time. I mean, I can administrate if I have to, but it’s not my strength. My friend KC puts it this way:
“As a creative, I was promoted out of creative work and ended up spending a lot of my time crunching numbers, managing a department budget, and supervising people. And ironically, none of those tasks are my top core strengths. When I walked away from the corporate world and started my own business at 48, I made half as much money but was twice as happy.”
Books such as Now, Discover Your Strengths—and the StrengthsFinder process––helped me grab hold of what KC had experienced: Why spend massive amounts of time and energy trying to master a skill set I’m either a) not good at, b) don’t enjoy, or c) can be done way better by someone else? Sometimes in life we do jobs we have to do, rather than ones we want to do. I get that. But life is too short to keep doing something you dislike or aren’t good at. All of us have choices and options—a mid-career change, vocational training, pursuing a new degree, etc.—and we need to exercise those options. God’s given His men gifts and talents, which Paul articulates so well:
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. ––Romans 12:17-18
Are you an ear trying to be an airline pilot? Or an eye trying to be a music critic? God planted a specific set of strengths and gifts in you, and no two of us are exactly the same. When we invite God into our career-choice process, here’s what happens: We begin to prioritize His will over our own, and He is able to place us in positions that glorify Him. And when that happens, we experience His joy.
Does it mean you get the job of your dreams? Sometimes, but not always. But it DOES mean you are now positioned to discover His dream for you. And that’s an amazing accomplishment.
Father, I don’t want to keep walking in my own power, nor do I want to waste any more time trying to be an ear when You’ve created me to be an eye. Please give me clarity on what Your next move is for me.