A
few Saturdays ago, my brother-in-law called me to hang out with him. He wanted
me to bring the boys over so we could shoot off rockets. We went, and later him
and I taught the boys how to catch ground balls. Abby came along too. It was a
trick making sure she didn’t get hit by the balls. (Don’t tell Mindy – that
will freak her out!) Everyone was safe and the boys sure had fun. While we were
there I asked Josh why he had a whole bucket of baseballs and a bat. I though
maybe he played in a league. He said, “Mostly I have balls for things like
this, but I did play in high school!” Josh is an actuary by day, so he spends a
lot of time working with numbers. He is pretty successful, has his own condo,
and has been working hard at the same company for a long time. The other day
when we were over there, I discovered something about him I didn’t know – his deep
love of baseball. He even wore a baseball costume to a Halloween party.
I
can totally relate to Josh; I have things I wanted to do growing up as well. I
absolutely love basketball. Still to this day I purchase basketball shorts for
my workout clothes, and take my kids up to the park to play on the small hoop.
When there are 5th and 6th graders at the park who want
to play with us, and they steal the ball from my little boys, I throw down a
mean dunk on them. They are usually impressed with my skills on the 8 foot rim,
and for a moment I am stuck in a dream of what it would have been like to play
for a big college team. Looking back, I wish I would have stayed on the JV team
during my junior year of high school rather than playing varsity. I could have
had more time playing the game I loved, rather than sitting on the bench. My
final year of Seminary the Sem team was short on players, so a few people
talked me into playing. There were others in my life who encouraged me not to
play, knowing I had a busy year in front of me. That was before I met Mindy and
my world got even busier. Regardless, I am glad I lived out that final year
playing basketball. It was the last time I would be able to play it every day. I
remember when the Preachers (the Seminary basketball team) headed up Columbia
to play. That team basically paid us to
come up and play so they could cream us, and they did just that. This group of
talented players had our number. My
teammates and I knew we were not headed for the NBA. We were not dreaming of being basketball
stars, like most of these guys we were playing against. We knew we were going
to be real preachers in life, and
that our fundamentals and understanding of the game were the only areas where
we were on an even playing field with these young guys. At one point in the
game I blocked someone out all the way to three-point line. One of the guys on
our team (who actually played for Gonzaga) came up to me and said, “Will, did
you see how far you blocked that guy out? That was awesome!” While that comment
meant a lot to me, it did not change me. I left Seminary with some of the old
jerseys, which you can still see me wearing occasionally, if you are lucky. Now
I play basketball just one time a year with some buddies who come in town for a
conference. Nevertheless, I know I still have talent.
These
stories remind me of two things we learn about talents in life. You can gain
all the knowledge of a particular skill set, but basically, we are born with
the talents we have. Sure, sometimes we can develop them, but our strongest
talents are the ones we are given. Those young guys in Columbia had basketball
talent, but some of them were forgetting to nurture the talent God had given
them by coupling it with knowledge. These are the greatest issues we face when using
our talents. Sometimes we are so focused on nurturing talents we are not given,
that we are not nurturing the talents we are
given. When we find away to take our talent and use it for God’s glory, we find
peace in managing our talents.
As a
youth pastor I spent many hours planning large events, and looking for ways to
bring more kids to our church. I spent days planning lessons for confirmation
and organizing trips. As I reflect on my days as a youth pastor, there were a
few parts of the job I really loved and felt like it just clicked. They all
were focused on relationships. I passed along the many connections I made with
people in the area, people that had a heart for youth. Some were in churches,
and some were in the school district or other areas. I loved the trips when I
got to learn about the different young men and women. Sometimes we even came
back from our trips with nicknames. I had an older adult Bible study that I
occasionally lead and poured my heart and soul into. I also led a group of youth
leadership, who helped pull together many of our events. All that time I was
fine-tuning my understanding of the talent that God had given me. It wasn’t so much that my talents lie in
youth, but in relationships. Once I
embraced this, I began to understand the challenges I faced in the ministry I
was called to do.
Managing
our talents is not easy. Sometimes we lead ourselves to the wrong ones. It can
be a life long process (sometimes frustrating) trying to understand our talents
and how we can use them to the glory of God. This week we spend time talking
about those talents and use the Psalms to lead us in that discussion.
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