I just started a book by Cecil Murphey, Unleash the Writer Within.
He poses the question “why do you write?” Then leads the charge by explaining why he writes. One of his reasons is: it is a gift.
Not like a present to spend on myself. But something that enriches other lives.
Knowing you have a gift can give you confidence and boldness. Wondering can leave you insecure and less productive. Or prone to give up more easily. Be depressed. He says himself, “the ability to write and sell a book isn’t, in itself, evidence of a gift.”
Many other gifts are more easily measured. Organization, mechanical ability, language acquisition, etc.
But deep inside myself, I wait for others to tell me how my words affect them. Then I allow that to determine whether I consider my writing a gift.
I think it’s that way in a lot of areas. God plants something in us. It’s there and we can’t escape the doing of it. And yet we wait for man’s approval – instead of God’s – to determine if what we have is a gift.
We cannot please all people. Some will love us. The better we do, the more some will hate us. Or at least try and knock us down a notch. I have to wonder if the reason for that is so they will feel better about themselves. I’m not talking about helpful criticism – the kind that is instructive and necessary if we are to grow in our area.
Yes, some people are extremely talented in an area and have a gift that the greatest dissenters have to give a nod to even if they don’t like the outcome of that gift.
I think there are more of us dabbling at that thing God has placed inside us, waiting for people to tell us it’s okay, than there are those of us who excel before they hear a word of praise.
But God likes to use those who are weak to show His strength. He takes the blind and gives them sight. Gives words to a child that change the world. Makes the impossible, possible.
What has God placed in your heart to do? What impossible gift has he deposited in you? What do you fight against inside yourself to get that thing done?
His "well done" is worth the wait!