Identifying Giftings

If you’re like me, you will often find yourself getting irritated by small little things associated with the work you do even when you are not at work.

I mean, for those of us who work in TV, can you actually watch TV without looking at lighting, camera technique, framing, focus etc? – I know I often can’t! (I still shout at the telly trying to get the Director's attention).

This was highlighted for me the other day by my wife. We were at a Christian conference for a week’s vacation – though mine was cut short by a few days due to work. She found herself standing in a long queue to get a doughnut (its worth the wait though) one morning and getting more and more frustrated by the seeming lack of organisation – she later said to me words to the effect of “Why can’t I stand there and not get wound up by this – but just accept it”. They made me think and I actually came up with what I think is an answer.

One of my wife’s greatest strengths – you might call it gifting or even anointing is in the area of administration and organisation, and it occurred to me that the reason she was getting wound up was that the situation (the lack of organisation) was an affront to her gifting – and in fact she wanted to operate in her gifting and try and change it to organise things better.

I think that’s fine BUT a key thing I think you have to learn is that you have to find a way of dealing with these issues so that you don’t constantly live a life of frustration and I think the key here could be summed up in an old prayer (that I’ll probably misquote):

“God help me to change the things I can change, accept the things I can’t change and grant me wisdom to know the difference” – I think peace can be found for all of us here.

Sometimes we simply cannot do anything to change things – such as my wife standing in the doughnut queue (or me shouting at the telly) and here we have to let these things go – NOT get uptight at the fact we can’t turn our “gifting” off BUT rather rejoice in the giftings we have but LET IT GO so we don’t get wound up. I think the first step for dealing with this is knowing and accepting our giftings and then we can CHOOSE to let these things go past without getting all twisted out if shape by them.

There’s one other very quick thing though I’d like to suggest which this thinking led me to. Often we come across people who say they don’t know where their giftings lie – well maybe there’s an answer to this in the above and we can help and guide them, by asking them what kind of things, situations etc. wind them up or frustrate them. This could be particularly true for those who sense a call to the media but are unclear on what specific area that maybe. Perhaps we need to work with them to identify what kind of things grate on them as they watch and listen – maybe they get wound up by sound quality (then perhaps audio is their thing) or story construction (maybe then more directing or writing) or the pace, shot order etc. (then perhaps they are editors) – this certainly may help us in our organisations to get the right people in the right positions (particularly when it comes to new entrants or youngsters) – and if we can achieve that we’ll have MUCH more success in everything we do and also much more contented people working with and for us – as they will be flowing in their gifts.

Let me know what you think on the above – could I be onto something here – I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.