Articulating Gifts

Valuing what my father disdained

When I got engaged over Christmas break of my junior year in college, my father asked, “Why are you finishing college? You’ve got your man.”

Yes, he was perfectly serious. It was, for one thing, a different era. For another, he disdained intellect, though he wasn’t a stupid man. But he didn’t value a college education.

He said of teachers, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

You might imagine the imprint that left.

My practical skills were adequate. I could sew, hammer a nail, mow a yard. But I was the only one in my family of eight siblings who finished any kind of college degree. In high school, my parents were not particularly interested in my grades. And they were afraid I would lose my Catholic faith in higher education.

They were right. I did lose my faith in that particular denomination of Christianity. But I gained Jesus.

Jesus, who values what he has planted in me.

I’m a thinker, much more than a doer. But I’m not an academic. I’m a theologian, but not formed by formal study.

Raised in an anti-intellectual environment, it’s taken years to value my gifts. Or even to know how to define what kind of thinking I do. But a new acquaintance asked me a question last week that helped me sort out a clearer answer.

Among other queries, she asked if I did lots of bible study, digging into the original languages.

“No,” I said, but it was a while later before I could articulate what interests me most, which is how to apply core spiritual truths to core emotional needs.

How does forgiveness work? What does it take to forgive? How is grief related? Why do we resist mourning? What can help us grow into the image of Jesus? Where is God in our suffering? What does it mean to love God? How do we grasp His love for us?

In short, what wisdom helps us live the abundant life Jesus promises?

Does any of this story resonate? Can you say, in a sentence, what your gifts are? Did how you grow up affect your ability to value those gifts?