God.Gifts.You—An Update

I’m so grateful you are doing this God. Gifts. You.: Your Unique Calling and Design six-week study. I, too, am doing it (again) myself with a group of 16 women from our church. They are leaning in and hosting and co-leading and praying and communicating, and, over time, hopefully becoming a little community within a community.

Here are some thoughts from our second session together:

The God. Gifts. You. (GGY) videos were filmed in 2017—meaning they are 5 years old. I find it interesting that my Mom journey continues—much harder, with a 1.5-year pandemic separation complicating things, now in end-stages. Still part of my call…but it was certainly easier 5 years ago (by hindsight) than it is now. More on that in a minute.

And re: the video--Stephen Ministry is not in its 3rd year, but its 8th…and we are looking at some big shifts—aligning the ministry with Deacons, providing Common Space Groups as a place for those who are serving as care-givers, etc. So, that, still is part of my call…to help transition a ministry into a new chapter…in a new chapter for our church overall. This caregiving ministry has taught me much that I needed to learn—about myself, about the Lord, about allowing HIM to be the CURE-giver as I show up as CARE-giver wherever. And, I’ve gotten attached…only to now find our team in a season of good and necessary transition…which also means listening to the Lord’s leading, making changes, and letting go. Perhaps you have found something in the past 3-5 years that has been life-giving for you. Perhaps that something has helped provide some role or identity for you. Perhaps God is now moving you on to something else—and, in order to do that, He needs your cooperation to let go and let Him do His thing.

As I’ve been doing the homework and the reflection questions, wondering about God’s calling and purpose for me now and future, I have been particularly taken by:

·         Samuel: “speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. I am praying this in this season…that I might hear the Lord more and more clearly. That I might make more time in silence to listen.

·         Esther: you are in your position “for such a time as this” (and God can/would provide someone else if I am not faithful)—both calling and warning, but also reassurance that God is sovereign and it’s not all up to me.

·         God gives and grants us favor and ability.

·         It’s not always about the famous, glamorous, big-shoes-to-fill leader examples. It’s in the everyday—supporting my husband, loving my Mom, listening to my sister, exhorting my brother to “step up”, walking alongside friends who lost everything in the Marshall Fire—without being able to “fix” it for them in any way, bringing meals to friends who have had surgery, showing up and being prepared, one person at a time, one moment at a time, doing this study with all of you…AND letting go as my schedule has been upended by my 96-year-old Mom’s battle with COVID, pneumonia, dementia, and all else that comes with very old age, end-of-life challenges, and transition to Hospice care.

·         Even if I don’t have complete clarity, I know that I have been “set apart” by and for God. I know that I am called TO Him first…and purposed to make a difference in the sphere in which He has placed me. Part of that is simply to be faithful to Him…to walk closely with Him…to make time to reflect and pray and listen to/for Him. To pray for and be kind to those around me, even when I’m frustrated.

Reflect:

Are you in transition from one role that you cherish/ed to another (perhaps one you don’t even see the shape of as yet)?

How can you listen to the Lord’s leading, make the transition, and let go of that “identity”, knowing that your REAL identity is found in Christ, not in what you do?

What is one recent daily interaction that has been a good reminder of the importance of day-by-day, moment-by-moment faithfulness, keeping in step with the Spirit?

 Photo (c) Shirley Giles Davis. All rights reserved.

 Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and leaders in a diversity of fields for over 30 years. She has also been Catalyst for Equipping at her church since 1999.