What is Your Spark?
By Pastor Adam McDowell
You never know how God could use your abilities. So, what is your God-given spark?
Here is a story from my childhood. It is common for families of young children to receive little gifts of drawings or crafts. As a little kid, I would draw things and give them to my mother, and I was very proud of what I could do. I kept honing my skills, and I came to really enjoy drawing birds. With each drawing I became more aware of the details in birds, and I would spend more time bringing out the details. I would draw each individual feather, paying attention to size, type, placement, and direction. One day I finished drawing a beautiful robin for my mom. I was really happy with my work, because I spent a few days working on it and painstakingly making sure everything was correct. Right before I handed my mom my “perfect” drawing, my sister, who is three years younger than me, gave mom her drawing. Now, my sister always enjoyed doing the things I liked doing, as little siblings tend to do. So, she had a drawing of a bird as well. I had thought mine was “perfect,” but my sister’s was more than perfect. It was actually beautiful, and she had only spent a few minutes completing it. What she had done had taken me years to learn, and, if memory serves me correctly, she had just figured out how to hold a pencil the day beforehand. At that moment I knew my sister was and would be a far better artist than I could ever be. I gave my mother my drawing of the robin and sat on the couch contemplating whether I was ever a good artist or if my mom was just a really loving mother saying everything that I gave her was perfect. From that day, I sought to figure out what my actual talent was.
In my sermon this weekend, we were reminded that you have talents given to you by God to be used for the growth of God’s Church. Everything used for the glory of God is loved by your Heavenly Father, just like my mom always loved my drawings. Sometimes though, we find out that our talents have shifted or changed. Maybe because your younger sibling shows you up… or maybe that’s just me. Nonetheless, we learn new things and grow in our skills. At St. Peter’s, we use a tool called the Spark Inventory to help us track your talents. Whether your skills have changed, you can’t remember when you last updated your Spark Inventory, or you never did complete the Spark Inventory, please follow the link below and take just a couple minutes to tell us what talents you believe God has given you. You never know how God will use those abilities; He may call you by name to help build His Church and the ministry at St. Peter’s.
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