Talents

While on my way to dispose of a breakfast of which I only took three bites, I noticed something that has broken my heart: The sixteenth craft I made at preschool this week, stuffed into the garbage beneath a layer of yesterday’s trash as if I wouldn’t find it.

No, not the one with the blue crayon circles. Also, no, not the paint handprints that mysteriously had some other kid’s name spelled backward on it. I’m talking about the one with the eight star stickers, a singular macaroni noodle glued to the top, wrinkled from when I shoved it in my backpack. Yes, there’s a hole in the middle from where I pressed the marker down too hard, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to dispose of it without my permission.

I am aware the refrigerator already displays five similar drawings, and, yeah, you have four noodle necklaces hanging on the lamp by your desk. But when I came home excitedly holding this latest presentation of my blossoming creativity, I thought the look of pride you had on your face was sincere. Now, I’m not sure what to believe.

Do you not appreciate the six minutes of uninterrupted focus required for me to produce such masterpieces? Is there no true love for the wilting dandelions I harvest from our yard three times a week that I demand you find a new vase for every time? Does this prove you’re not planning on treasuring the rocks I collected for you in my pocket that I forgot to take out until it was too late, which were rattling around in the dryer during the third load of laundry you were doing today?

My future therapy bills are already increasing over the denial of genius presented through this unforgivable act of parental neglect.

But trauma creates great art, and with that, I’m prepared to unveil my greatest work yet: a rainbow mural of permanent markers all over the bathroom on every surface I could reach. The sink. The baseboards. The shower curtain. The mirror. The light switch. The door. The fancy tile you had installed during a remodel before I was born.

I’m hopeful the tears I see forming in your eyes represent how moved you are by my magnum opus. It feels great to finally have my work be respected the way it should.

This 2024 report claims that "every state is number one in something." For instance, did you know that:

• Colorado tops the list as the most physically active state.
• Idaho ranks as the number one state for home ownership thanks to affordability.
• Kansas has the least number of poor roadways with less than 1% of roads considered unserviceable.
• Louisiana has the highest number of unmarried adults and thus is the best dating state.
• Michigan has the most golf courses and country clubs per capita.
• When it comes to high school graduations, Nebraska leads with an incredible 93.7% of students graduating.
• Pennsylvania has the most licensed hunters per capita, with 20 hunters per square mile.
• You can binge watch your favorite shows much faster in Tennessee, with internet speeds 50 times quicker than the national average.

You can see the results, best and worst for all 50 states here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This a fun way to set up a sermon on church vision (“our church's greatest strengths”) or spiritual gifts.

Forty years ago, Steve Bell began building cabinets in his garage. Those humble beginnings have grown over the decades into Bellmont Cabinet Co., an award-winning manufacturing company specializing in the minimalist “frameless” cabinet, of which Steve was one of the first pioneers.

But Steve has pioneered more than just cabinetry – he is redefining the workplace and what it means to be a working Christian. “Growing up, there was this sense that if you’re really called to faith, then you're going to go into ‘the real Christian work’ of full-time Christian service. Everything else was basically a compromise,” recalls Steve, whose parents were disappointed that he didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps into pastoral ministry.

One day in college, he was reading RG LeTourneau's Mover of Men and Mountains. LeTourneau experienced success in his business, so he asked his pastor, “Do you think I should sell my business and become a missionary?” The pastor said, “Bob, God needs businessmen as much as he needs pastors and teachers and missionaries.”

LeTourneau went on to become one of the great industrialists of the World War II era. Steve also realized that his desires for the business and manufacturing sector were a conviction from the Lord.

Steve said: “I think we've got generations of people growing up in the church who don't understand the importance of their work … God doesn't just love the cabinet maker; he loves good cabinets too. He actually loves the work that we do. I’ve got over 300 employees here that go out every day to make something that’s beautiful. And God loves beauty.”

Steve says, “This 200,000-square-foot facility with these 300 employees—this is my ministry … We want everybody that touches Bellmont to see Christ reflected in the way we do our business.”

How often do we as parents imagine our children playing a professional sport? Whether it is swimming, gymnastics, college football, or basketball, there is often the hope that our child will make the cut.

‌Youth sports is a big industry in the United States. The Aspen Institute says it is a “30-40 billion dollar,” industry. The average family spends around $883 a year to cover the costs of just one primary sport. We might ask "Is the cost worth the investment?"

‌The reality is that only 3% of High School basketball players will play at college level. And this number drops significantly further along the professional level.

‌According to the NCAA, “Only 0.02 to 0.03 percent of high school players end up playing in the NBA or WNBA.” Think about that number! That means out of 10,000 high school players only 1 or 2 will ever get the chance to play a professional sport.

‌Possible Preaching Angle:

It is so easy to get focused on the wrong goals. Matthew 25:14-30 makes clear that it is not the amount of the talent, but our attitude towards our gifts that is crucial. We each have been given at least one gift and different abilities. Jesus says do not look at what others do, instead make a difference with the talent you have been given.

Dr. Joe Carella, Sport Psychology Consultant with the NBA’s Orlando Magic addresses what to do "When you see yourself differently than your boss does."

Anyone who gets drafted in the NBA feels like they're going to be an all-star with a long career ahead of them. Perhaps you think of yourself as a primary scorer, the guy you give the ball to at the end of the game to make the bucket to win. The coach, however, sees you primarily as a defensive player. You can either fight or accept that.

I work with the players to accept their coach's vision and to develop the skills to excel in that role. If you don't take advantage of the opportunity you're given, you may regret it for a long time. Interestingly, this is much less of a problem with veteran players. When you're a rookie who might not want to recognize or accept your limitations, it's hard. Unfortunately, the guys who don't develop greater self-awareness are more likely to resist change, and their NBA careers are shorter and don't match their potential. But the players who find a way to be dependable while embracing the challenge of changing perceptions are the ones with long, fulfilling careers.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In the Christian walk, our "Coach" ultimately decides what position we will play and our role on his team. His vision for our life is always the right one. Leaning into it, and not wasting our time trying to be someone else, is the best was to find true success.

Baseball scouts are constantly looking for new talent, but Major League Baseball is now partnering with Uplift Labs, a biomechanics company, which “says it can document a prospect’s specific movement patterns using just two iPhone cameras.”

Uplift says it uses artificial intelligence to translate the images captured by the phone cameras into metrics that can quantify elements of player movement. It believes the data it generates can detect player’s flaws, forecast their potential, and flag their potential for injury.

Baseball scouts suddenly have a lot more information in their search for the mythical “five-tool player who has speed, fielding, fielding prowess, can hit for average and power and possess arm strength. Gone are the days when teams relied on a scout’s career’s worth of anecdata to determine how the player might perform at the big leagues.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, talents and liabilities. God knows us inside and out, better than anyone else, even ourselves or artificial intelligence.

Sometimes just taking part is what counts. Just ask Belgian shot-put thrower Jolien Boumkwo, who competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the European Athletics Team Championships after her teammates had to withdraw through injury.

After placing seventh in the shot put on Friday, Boumkwo turned her attention to the hurdles at the last minute and duly finished in a time of 32.81 seconds – 19 seconds behind the seventh-placed athlete.

Footage of Boumkwo carefully stepping over each hurdle while the other athletes race away ahead of her has since gone viral on social media. She smiled and laughed throughout before being congratulated by other competitors at the finish line.

Just having an athlete take part in the event earned Belgium two points and saved the team from disqualification. Boumkwo’s efforts weren’t enough to save her country from being relegated to the second division at the meet in Poland, finishing 14th out of 16 countries with 250 points.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes it is the taking part that really counts. In the church this might mean stepping up to help serve even though it is not our primary spiritual gift. We are part of a team and we all serve for the benefit of the body (1 Cor. 12:1-31) and we should do it with eagerness and joy.

Author and researcher Bruce Feiler crisscrossed the country, trying to understand the roots of shifting attitudes towards work. He collected 400 extensive life stories of Americans in all 50 states, interviewing everyone from CEOs and mom-and-pop proprietors to schoolteachers and line workers. Feiler concluded that “unprecedented numbers of Americans are walking away from their jobs, rethinking their routines and breaking away from traditional expectations.”

Fifty million Americans quit a job in the last year, and another third of the workforce is renegotiating where, when, and how they work. Three-quarters of Americans in a recent survey said that they plan to look for new work this year.

Feiler discovered a shift: “Today’s workers are increasingly rejecting the script that has long defined the American Dream. They rebuff the notion that each of us must follow a linear career—lock into a dream early, always climb higher, never stop until you reach the top."

His data shows that the average worker goes through a moment of disruption or reinvention every two and a half years—what he calls a “workquake.”

In the end, fewer Americans are searching merely for work these days; more are searching for work with meaning. Some still emphasize wealth and status, but others stress service, self-expression, or personal fulfillment.

Condoleezza Rice, the former diplomat and Secretary of State, was a sophomore in college majoring in piano performance, working toward a professional musical career. That summer, she went to study and perform at the Aspen Musical Festival, a prestigious and competitively sought honor.

While there, she came into contact with, as she put it, “11-year-olds who could play from sight what had taken me all year to learn.” She knew that she could not compete with people of such innate talent. She knew she would never be the best, and that meant this wasn't the path she wanted to pursue.

At the start of her junior year, she changed her major from music to international relations. And the rest is history.

Rice earned graduate degrees in political science from Notre Dame and would go on to become an expert on the Soviet Union and eventually foreign policy. She served as the National Security advisor and then US Secretary of State, as the first woman of color to do so.

Her life, and the future lives of countless others, was changed that fateful day when 19-year-old “Condi” decided she would not be a pianist. She didn't waste time staring at a door that was closing, but instead, while the opportunity was still ripe, pushed a new one open.

2022 saw some truly bizarre Guinness World Records, including:

• Fastest time to find and alphabetize the letters in a can of alphabet soup (2 minutes and 8.6 seconds).
• The farthest tightrope walk in high heels (639 feet, in four-inch stilettos)
• The largest gathering of people with the same first and last name (178 Hirokazu Tanakas in Japan, beating the 2005 record of 164 Martha Stewarts).
• Fastest time to eat 10 Carolina Reaper chilies.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a lighthearted look at human “accomplishments.” But it does raise the question, “What new and innovative activity can you accomplish for the Lord and his Kingdom this year? How can you use your spiritual gift to unlock new avenues of service or outreach for the Lord?”

By most measures, Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are remarkable women. Intelligent and capable …. Both are the kind of mega pop stars who inspire convulsions of adulation and tears. They’re graced with a radiance that seems almost exclusive to celebrities, with skin so incandescent it needs no filter.

But they are not perfect. Nor do they pretend to be. A recent Apple TV+ documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, offers an unsparing portrait of Gomez, now 30, and her experiences with bipolar disorder, lupus, anxiety, and psychosis. On her latest album, Midnights, Taylor Swift, now 32, sings about her depression working the graveyard shift, about ending up in crisis. In her song “Anti-Hero” she sings, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me ... Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I’m a monster.”

This combination of external flawlessness and emotional vulnerability feels like a feature particular to contemporary female pop stardom. On one screen we see impeccable glam, expertly choreographed and costumed performances and startling displays of luxury. On the other screen, admissions of anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks, and sleeplessness.

For today’s teens, imagine that same relentless scrutiny—if not in quite the same proportions—and self-doubt. In the recent book Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing, Emily Weinstein and Carrie James document what they call “Comparison Quicksand.” They quote girls saying things such as, “On social media everyone seems like they are far better and far ahead than me, which is stressful and makes me feel behind, unwanted and stupid.” And: “I scroll through my Instagram and see models with perfect bodies and I feel horrible about myself.” For teenagers who are susceptible to insecurity, Weinstein and James write, “going on social media can activate the ‘dark spiral.’”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In our society, social media and the news elevates celebrities to become role models that are impossible to emulate. Parents and mentors should realize this and help orient our young people to scriptural maturity. Each one of them is a unique creation with gifts and abilities which they can celebrate and humbly use to serve others.

One hundred years ago (1922), a Minnesota man named Ralph Samuelson went to a local lumberyard. Most people would have said that Samuelson found two ordinary eight-foot-long pine boards. But Samuelson had a more creative idea. He saw two water skis. Here’s the backstory on his invention of waterskiing.

Samuelson lived in Minnesota and wondered if you could ski on water the way you could on snow. At 18, he made his own skis and had his brother pull him behind his boat. He unsuccessfully tried snow skis and barrel staves before realizing that he needed something that covered more surface area on the water. That’s when Samuelson spotted two eight-foot-long, nine-inch-wide pine boards.

Using his mother’s wash boiler, he softened one end of each board, then clamped the tips with vises so they would curve upwards. He affixed leather straps to hold his feet in place and acquired 100 feet of window sash cord to use as a tow rope. Finally, he hired a blacksmith to make a small iron ring to serve as the rope’s handle.

Samuelson tried several different approaches. In most of his attempts, he started with his skis level with or below the water line; but by the time his brother got the boat going, Samuelson was sinking.

Finally, he tried raising the tips of the skis out of the water while he leaned back—and it worked. As his brother steered the boat, Samuelson cruised along behind him. To this day, this is still the position that water skiers assume. Samuelson began performing tricks on his skis and crowds as large as 1,000 came out to watch him.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Creativity; Persistence; Vision – Those who are truly successful often start with a dream and persist despite setbacks. Just because it has never been tried before, doesn’t mean it can’t work. 2) Skill; Spiritual Gifts; Talent – God gives different gifts to his people to use for the common good. Don’t neglect your gift, but use it to glorify God and to serve his people.

Suzanne Simard writes about ecosystems from the viewpoint of adaptation and evolution. But her comments pique the interest of those who love the diversity and interconnectedness of the Body of Christ. She writes:

We can think of an ecosystem of wolves, caribou, trees, and fungi creating biodiversity just as an orchestra of woodwind, brass, percussion, and string musicians assemble into a symphony. Or our brains, composed of neurons, axons, and neurotransmitters, produce thought and compassion. Or the way brothers and sisters join to overcome a trauma like illness or death, the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

The cohesion of biodiversity in a forest, the musicians in an orchestra, the members of a family growing through conversation and feedback, through memories and learning from the past. Through this cohesion, our systems develop into something whole and resilient.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Members of the body of Christ, with different personalities, gifts, and backgrounds are “being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).

After high school, Brandon Yates became an electrician. Finally, when he became a master electrician Yates founded KC One, an electrical contracting services company based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Yates said, “Craftsman is a lost word in our day.” He aims to change that by recruiting hardworking high-school graduates with an aptitude for making things. KC One’s apprenticeship program provides on-the-job training and certifications for one or two young electricians each year. “Society teaches these kids that they’ll become losers if they become electricians. My job is to unteach them.”

The perception that the trades offer less status and money, and demand less intelligence, is one likely reason young people have turned away from careers in the trades for several generations. In Yates’s school district, officials recently shuttered the entire shop class program. Scholar Mike Rose says, “In our culture, the craftsman is a muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no thought bright behind the eye.” Thinking, it’s assumed, is for the office, not the shop.

However, Scripture identifies Jesus himself as a tekton (Mark 6:3, literally “craftsman” or “one who works with his hands”). So, we think it’s high time to challenge the tradesman stereotype, and to rethink the modern divide between white collar and blue collar, office and shop, in light of the Divine Craftsman who will one day make all things new.

Most college graduates have had little, if any, training in repairing a leaky toilet or hardwiring a smoke detector. For an awful lot of college graduates, without help, their pipes would be forever clogged. Without reintegrating the trades back into the liberal arts, we will perpetuate the falsehood that plumbers, electricians, and other skilled laborers are somehow less intelligent.

Possible Preaching Angle:

If there is a renaissance in craftsmanship, it should be welcomed by Christians. After all, we look to a day when we will inhabit a house Jesus has built—a richly prepared mansion that owes its beauty to a single designer and laborer (John 14:2). God is Maker, Creator of the heavens and the earth; and God is Fixer, Redeemer and Restorer of a broken world. As we look forward to the heavenly city, whose Architect and Builder is God (Heb. 11:10), perhaps we owe it to our children and grandchildren to encourage more of them to be makers and fixers, too.

In an article by Heather Havrilesky entitled, “Let Your Kids Be Bad at Things,” she ponders on the importance of beautifully terrible children’s recitals.

Parents want their children to succeed, to be good at something they enjoy. But this otherwise noble aim is precisely what leads to an overbearing parent who ruins the fun. This is something Havrilesky learned when her child signed up for a school talent show. She wanted perfection from her daughter, but it was precisely her imperfections that made the talent show so perfect:

On the night of the talent show, I wasn’t thinking about magic. I was bracing myself, as the curtains parted. I felt like a jerk for leading my poor lambs to the slaughter of public humiliation.

But as the first wobbly-voiced performer fumbled with her microphone, a different sort of magic slowly took over. I could see that these were charming flaws I was witnessing — irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime sorts of flaws: the distorted microphone squeals in the midst of a breathy Les Misérables ballad, the horn players with their strange alternative Star Wars rhythm. It was actually the non-greatness that made each kid’s performance so memorable and unique.

When my daughter and her friends took to the stage, I could see that was part of what made them so engrossing. These were the details that could break your heart: The girl who is always off beat. The girl who smiles but never sings. The girl who sings but never smiles. The girl who moves in the opposite direction from everyone else, no matter how many times you correct her.

Together, they form a kind of ragged, vulnerable tribute to being 9-years-old, awkwardly poised between very young and too old too soon. Together, they represent how it feels when you’re trying to choose between caring too little and caring too much. I was trying to stay aloof, but tears started pouring out of my eyes and wouldn’t stop. It was a beautifully terrible recital.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This must certainly echo something of what God feels as he values our imperfect service. He knows we are not perfect, yet we are loved. And it is our imperfections that cause us to lean on him for his strength and results (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

The hottest new book in the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library had a waiting list more than 50 people strong. But it wasn’t just word-of-mouth advertising that propelled the book into must-read territory. It was also its exclusivity. Unlike most mass-produced works on library shelves, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis is one-of-a-kind. And its author Dillon Helbig is eight-years-old.

Dillon made his authorial intent clear when, after writing and illustrating his 81-page creation by hand at home, he snuck it onto a library shelf during a recent visit with his grandmother. After returning home, he admitted the scheme to his mother, who immediately called the library to ask if anyone had seen it.

“It was a sneaky act,” said branch manager Alex Hartman. Dillon himself admitted this, calling his clandestine act “naughty-ish.” Nevertheless, Hartman was impressed, calling the book “far too obviously a special item for us to consider getting rid of it.” Hartman eventually read it to her six-year-old son, who loved it. She said:

Dillon is a confident guy and a generous guy. He wanted to share the story. I don’t think it’s a self-promotion thing. He just genuinely wanted other people to be able to enjoy his story. ... He’s been a lifelong library user, so he knows how books are shared.

The other librarians agreed that it met the criteria for inclusion onto its stacks. So, Hartman got Dillon’s permission to add a barcode to the back of The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, and officially added it to the collection. They also gave Dillon a Best Young Novelist award, which they created specifically for him.

Dillon’s mom said, “His imagination is just constantly going, and he is a very creative little boy. He just comes up with these amazing stories and adventures, and we just kind of follow along.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just like these librarians encouraged Dillon, we should also encourage the young people we encounter. We can promote their gifts and talents and prepare them to keep on serving others.

Actor Charlie Hunnam has recently begun a transition to writing. About to turn 40, he had reached a place in life for some evaluation. Hunnam knew he would be out of work for a while due to COVID-19. And in his heart, there were stories that he had been carrying around. He shares, "They had been sort of given to me like gifts. And I wasn't honoring the gifts."

As he started the process of honoring these gifts, Hunnam found new energy. He started to get up around 4:00 am daily to go on a short hike. He would be back home, showered, and ate breakfast by 6:00 am. Then he would sit down to write until 7:00 pm. That's 13 hours! He explains the sensation this way:

I just started to get this really “now” feeling of life. Like there's nothing else in the world that would be better for me than what I'm doing right now. And the result of it was more positive than anything I've ever done in my career. ... And I've worked really, really hard to cultivate this gift and be proud of the work that I'm able to do now. But part of me feels like it's an uphill struggle.

But when I write, I feel as though I'm honoring the innate gifts that God gave me. I feel like I really can do this [stuff] at a high level. And that's a feeling that I've never had in my life before, in any regards. I feel like we all have one or two innate talents, and a task of life is to identify those and then do that as much as you possibly can. Because that's where the joy and the presence is going to come from. That's where the grace is going to come from.

During the mandatory fifteen-minute observation period following their vaccine shots for COVID-19, a room full of people were treated to something else rare and costly; an impromptu concert from an 18-time Grammy-award-winner.

World famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma has a residence in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. So, having traveled to the local community college campus to receive his vaccination shots, the celebrated musician made a request to give a little something back.

Professor Jonah Sykes said, “He asked one of our clinic managers if he could perform a few songs for folks in the observation area.” While wearing his mask, Ma set up along the back wall--socially distant from the rest of the room--and began playing his instrument. Sykes said, “Many people were moved to tears. It was an exceptional moment at the end of a long day of giving shots.”

This kind of philanthropy has become a part of Ma’s public persona. Back in March of 2020, when plenty of Americans were trying to adjust to having to stay at home, he repeatedly played his cello in a series of Twitter live streams called “Songs of Comfort.” Similarly, in August 2020 he teamed up with pianist Emmanuel Ax to play a series of pop-up concerts for frontline workers in the Pittsfield area.

If his chosen name was any indication, this is the life intended for Yo-Yo Ma. Named after the Chinese word for “friendship,” his prodigious gifting also resembles the namesake American toy. Whenever and wherever people are down, he has a knack for bringing them back up again.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When we use our God-given talents to bless the community, we honor God as the source of those talents.

As he wrapped up his work as the voice of Darth Vader in the 2014 Star Wars film Rogue One, James Earl Jones opened up about his struggles with a speech impediment. Listening to his deep booming voice threatening inept generals of the Empire, you would never realize that the talent for which he is best known is simultaneously a pervasive struggle.

His familiar voice was largely silent in his younger years, a result of a severe stutter. Though he was quiet, a teacher noticed that he enjoyed writing poetry. He told Jones "If you like words that much, James, you ought to be able to say them out loud." To address his stutter, Jones began performing Shakespeare. He shares, "If I hadn't been a stutterer, I would never have been an actor."

Backstage, his script is always within reach. The words, even after seven decades, have remained a career-long struggle. "I mangle a word or two every night because the consonants get into a fight with the vowels."

Interviewer Jamie Wax referenced Jones’ career labeling it "a pursuit of happiness." Jones had this to say:

By taking one step at a time, I've found great treasures. Every step I take ... It's just about being content, that's all. I don't know what the pursuit of happiness is. What do you mean pursuit of happiness? No, contentment. If that doesn't put a glow on your face, nothing really will.