MY RADICAL JOURNEY: 40 Days with The Purpose Driven Life

Gifts

Day 32: Using What God Gave You

This chapter concludes Warren's discussion of his acrostic. I think the Danish proverb sums it up: What you are is God's gift to you; what you do with yourself is your gift to God.

Yes. The best use of my life is to serve God out of my SHAPE. But to be able to do this, I must venture to discover my shape and then develop it to the max.

To discover our shape is to discover ourselves. How God made us the way we are? What way are we? How are we similar to others? Or better yet: how are we unique from others? We begin with these questions. But then the best route to discovery is to experiment. I share Warren's experience of discovering that teaching gave me a "kick" and that I was actually good at it. 

But I would not have realized it had I not braved to try again after a previous failure at application. The first time I applied for a teaching position at a university, I came prepared with a Powerpoint ready for a "demo teach". Nights of preparation went down the drain when the dean grilled me in the interview and pointed out that I did not have the experience (how could I if they would not try me so I can have one?) or a master's degree (I know I must have been too daring that time not to be at least enrolled in one) or a teaching license (of course I did not have one as I was not an education major). Maybe it was not my time.

Indeed two years later, enrolled in a masters program but still without experience and a teaching license, I aced a teaching demo and obtained a teaching position at a college. I tried one semester and enjoyed it so much that I signed on for the next. I had to stop only because I had to focus on my academic units in my masters. I also eked the time to get some education units, took the Licensure Exams for Teachers, and passed. So now I have the experience, the license, and soon a master's degree. In a sense, all those years after my failure at my first application for a teaching post was a voyage of discovery for me. I discovered some of my gifts and abilities which I would not know I had had I not dived head-on.

And I enjoyed teaching. Warren emphasizes that we must enjoy our shapes. Since what we are is God's gift to us, we must necessarily enjoy ourselves.

But going further, we must not only enjoy our shapes; we must keep on developing them and this has been taught to us so much in the Parable of the Talents. We will be accountable to our Master in the end with what we have done with the talents He has given us. Practice makes perfect so goes a cliché. We can perfect ourselves -- our gifts, our talents -- to serve God's purpose for us in this world.