Tag: you are not alone

Posted on

What Am I?

Photo courtesy of https://medium.com/@joseph.r.pack/the-bourne-transformation-cb507485415c

Last week I posted about how we’re in a war. It can be difficult to see the best way to gird up and fight back, though. How can we be part of God’s plan to overcome the world? Well, I’ll tell you.

When it first came out, I really enjoyed the movie “The Bourne Identity.” For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s about an American that gets recovered while floating unconscious off the coast of France; he has no memory of who he is, how he ended up in the water, or why he has a pair of gunshot wounds in his back.

As the story unfolds we try to solve the mystery alongside him, but what’s very interesting is that even though he can’t remember who he is, certain skills come very naturally to him. He speaks at least three different languages, he ties complicated knots without knowing why he knows how to do it. He excels at hand-to-hand fighting, combat driving, and use of various weapons. He’s got serious skills, but doesn’t have a clue about the purpose behind applying them.

Obviously he fits into a larger story, but when we meet him, he’s just a guy with skills trying to figure out his place in the world. He’s a highly skilled, but uncertain fellow without a purpose.

Does that sound like you?

We all come pre-loaded with different talents, skills, and gifts. Some have obvious application (leadership or teaching, for example), while others seem like little more than amusing party tricks. We can use them for our own benefit in some cases, but it’s important to remember that we were given specific skills for a specific reason.

What’s the definition of a gift? An excerpt from the video below says that it’s “the thing you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort.” It’s something that comes naturally to you; something you can do without even trying. It doesn’t have to be something spiritual or church-y. Running focus groups; skateboarding; comforting hurting people; competing in triathlons; interior decorating; creating various forms of art; plumbing. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, but by pursuing your gift or using your talent right now, God will position you in a place He wants you to be at just the right time in the future. Many people turn or run from their gift because it’s something they don’t want to be gifted in, and they pursue something that “makes more sense” but doesn’t fit who they are. If that’s you, I urge you to stop chasing something you’re not meant to be and embrace the tools you already possess. You have them for a reason.

Our mystery American from the movie eventually discovers what he is, and having that context makes him more comfortable in his own skin; learning more about the background of his skills gives him purpose and structure to help him apply his skills. Christians have the same thing. After you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior, your purpose is no longer to find God, it is to glorify Him. You want to know how to be a part of that? Do what you were made to do: use your God-given talents to live your life in honor of Him.

Think of a tool that goes unused: a hammer that doesn’t strike; scissors that don’t cut. These are tools with unmet potential. It’s not up to the tools to be used in the right way or envision the details of what they’re used for; that’s the craftsman’s job. As “Christian tools,” we don’t need to be overwhelmed by trying to discover what the plan is; we only need to place ourselves in the hands of the Master and be used the way He sees best.

I’m including a link to a motivational YouTube video. It’s a little lengthy (about half an hour), but since it’s audio only, you don’t need to watch it as it plays. It’s a good listen while folding laundry, working in the garage, cooking dinner, working out, or driving. It can give you a better idea about how to honor God by employing your gift(s).

Know someone that would like to read this? Pass it along to them! New content posted every Thursday.

Posted on

You’re Not the First

Here’s a paddler going over a 10+ foot drop

By the start of senior year of college, most students are thinking about their last classes and life beyond their degree. I was thinking about it being my last year to take advantage of all the institution’s adventure sports programs.

I was into kayaking and whitewater rafting at the time. Coming back to college at the end of summer meant that the water in the local creeks and river was still warm. For kayaking, that was nice, but it was also the time of year where the flow rate was the lowest, so a lot of creeks and rivers were either too low or too slow to be enjoyable. Thankfully, we had a solution for that.

Not far from the college was a man-made lake with a concrete dam. The lake provided summer boating opportunities for visitors and residents. Every year, about this time in September, the dam operator dropped the lake’s water level roughly 10-15 feet to kill most of the shallow water algae over the winter. That way the water in these areas the following spring and summer would stay clear of excessive plant growth.

The faculty adviser for the college’s paddle sports club, a guy named Tim, was in touch with the dam operator. The operator was pretty cool about releasing the water in a time and manner that Tim would request. If we wanted a longer, sustained flow, this guy would accommodate us. If we wanted a bigger, shorter burst, he’d make it happen. The two would agree on a schedule for when the release would begin, and prior to that date’s arrival, Tim and a few other people would walk down through the creek bed with chainsaws to clear potential obstacles. It was a custom-ordered whitewater run!

I had only become interested in kayaking the previous academic year. I’m not sure why, but I got it into my head that I wanted to go over a drop in a kayak. A drop is just like it sounds…it’s a sudden change in the elevation of the creek/river bed. It could be a shelf that spans the whole width of the body of water you’re going down, or maybe a formation where one side of the river has a big drop while the other side has a more gradual slope. As it turns out, this run had a drop of probably 4-5 feet right at the beginning…great for a first-time drop. When I got the invite, this is the feature that sold me.

The day arrived and I met up with a few other guys. One of them, a maintenance guy at the college, was named Charlie. Charlie’s hobbies included woodworking and generally “MacGyvering” things. He carved his own wooden kayak paddle. He also fashioned a wooden bumper for his car when it needed to be replaced. His family hosted a number of us for dinner once, and his kids showed off a system of pulleys that allowed them to raise or lower their beds depending on whether they wanted more floor space or to go to bed. Charlie was going to walk me through my first drop.

We drove to the lake, geared up, and carried our boats down to the creek. We put in just downstream of the spillway, and the drop wasn’t far beyond. Charlie had walked me through the process a bit, laying out the mechanics of what needed to happen and the order in which they needed to happen. Much like I had learned years before, it was important to not reduce speed as you approach the drop.

Charlie was going to be the first to do the drop, so I could see where to do it and how to approach it. He worked out a signal with me before he went over the edge. A drop of 4 or 5 feet isn’t that much, but when you’re sitting in a boat that’s barely on top of the water, your eyes are only about two feet off the surface, so it looked much higher. After Charlie went over the edge, I wouldn’t be able to see him. Once he was safely down and he was ready for me to proceed, he’d stick his paddle up in the air and wave it back and forth, and that would be my “green light.”

Deciding that we were both ready, he went for it. He started paddling and kept going, right up until the bow of his boat dropped, his stern popped up out of the water, and he disappeared over the edge. A few seconds followed, and then I saw one end of a hand-carved wooden paddle stick up in the air and start waving around. It was my turn.

I went for it. I started paddling, and got faster as I neared the shelf. As I slid over the ledge, my boat’s bow dipped and for a fraction of a second I was in midair. The bow then sliced deep into the water before the kayak’s buoyancy bounced it back up to the surface. It was easier than I thought, and it was cool!

The thing that made this part of the adventure so easy was that I had someone right there to walk me through it. It was someone who had been through it before, who knew what to expect, and was physically right there to help me in case I got into a jam. In this situation, Charlie mentored me through the challenge successfully, and it was much different than if I had been there by myself and decided to try it and see what happened.

How about you? Do you have a mentor that can help guide you through a situation that’s foreign and scary to you? This life is full of unknowns, but it’s also full of people with lots of experience that you don’t have. Don’t be afraid of taking a shortcut to spare yourself some painful lessons by learning from others’ hard-won experience.

Maybe you’re more like Charlie. You’ve been around the block a few times. You see someone who’s enthusiastic but inexperienced, and it looks like they’re in an awfully big hurry to get themselves hurt or stuck in a bad situation. Why not see if they’re willing to allow you to help channel that enthusiasm into something productive? Don’t do it because you think it’ll make you look good; do it because you can help them.