Are you talented, at something? Yes you are.

There are many life coaches who try to help us to find our talents and natural abilities, and they want us to be talented in our own way. 

When I was young, my parents bought a piano, and with my sisters, I had to go to piano lessons every week. I had to practice on the piano, every day.

After years of this, my older brother convinced my parents that they could save money, if they let me quit those lessons. I think he was getting annoyed by the sound that I made on that piano, every day.

So, they let me quit piano lessons, and no, I don’t play the piano now.

But when I was an adult, I bought a classical guitar with nylon strings. I found a teacher who was willing to teach me every week, and I practiced for many hours, for several years. It was fun, I liked it, but I didn’t play classical guitar for other people. When my friendly teacher moved away to a different city, I stopped trying, and eventually I gave the guitar away, to a relative.

Also, you don’t want to hear me sing, and that seems to be common for most of my brothers and sisters.

So, am I a talented musician? 

No!

My best advice is that no-talent is a sign directing us to other skills and talents. I will spare you the details, but I do seem to be good, and even talented at some things.

This is also true for you? You are someone, with something to offer the rest of us. Without you, we have a vacuum, where you should be.

This is more than a casual conversation, it is a spiritual issue.

You and I were created to be something in the life time that we have.

So, how am I doing as a life coach? It’s not my strong point, but there is some truth that we all need to know. I am writing as a Christian, and I found who I was, in spiritual places.

I had a church problem when I was a child and a teenager; I failed grade 1 in elementary school. I don’t know how anyone could do that, but my teacher said that I needed to repeat, and my parents didn’t argue.

The problem was in church and Sunday School. Every year, I graduated, with my friends, and everyone thought I was one year smarter than I really was. 

I learned to keep quiet about my grade in school. Other children can be cruel.

One Sunday, I was sent to a Sunday morning class for High School students. I was hoping to blend into the crowd and stay quiet, because was not qualified to be there.

I know now, that I probably would have tolerated this stress until I was a young adult. Then I would have moved out of my parent’s home, and dropped all of this church and religious stuff. I would have ended the stress and lived a life without God.

The problem ended when I walked into that classroom. I was early and the room was mostly empty. That man at the front noticed me, right away, and he started a friendly conversation.

His name was Max, and I learned that his career was selling tractors to farmers. He clearly knew how to relate to strangers. I was a new face, and I had a new friend from our first conversation.

That man stayed with us for years, and he was a great influence in our lives. There were others in that church basement classroom, and we grew into maturity with our friendly Bible teacher, a tractor salesman.

That man didn’t show any real talent, he showed a spiritual gift. He worked hard to be the best he could, and I’m sure he was never paid, he was an enthusiastic volunteer.

We are told:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. (1 Corinthian 12: 7 to 11) 

Our talents need three things:

1) A person who wants to be useful. The world has many failures and deficiencies, and we need talented people. We need you and me, doing our best, in a world full of human failure. 

2) A spiritual home. Did you know that many of the popular musicians started out singing in church? They didn’t all end in the place where they started, but spiritual gifts are “for the common good” in groups of believers.

Did you know, for example, that Elvis was raised, by his mother, to attend a Pentecostal church every Sunday? Music historians know that this was where his musical talent started.

3) Hard work. That friendly tractor salesman cared about us, and invested years of his life to be our spiritual teacher. Also, for a talented musician, there are three things needed to play the piano well: “Practice, practice, practice.” OK, it didn’t work for me, but my gifts are in other places.

I think we miss this point, but one reason to be a believer in Jesus, is so we can find ourselves. You and I are made to be someone, and God wants us on that path.

It’s a great life lesson.