How Does Passion Fit into the Spiritual Gifts Journey?--Gifts FAQ

The previous few posts and next blog posts capture some questions from a recent Your Unique Design gifts class. One participant asked, with regard to his/her gifts:

My gifts and passion do not agree with each other. How should I decide what to prioritize?

This is probably a longer conversation, but here are some thoughts:

In many cases, our spiritual gifts serve our passions, meaning that any and all gifts show up anywhere we find ourselves and are useful. For example, say my passion is equipping others to be healthier. A gift of Mercy would be an asset in the sense that I can empathize with their struggles and come alongside in a compassionate way as I am connecting them with resources. A gift of Prophecy would be an asset in a different way—sometimes truth needs to be spoken candidly and directly in order to help someone move forward. These engagements would be received very differently by the recipients even though the passion is the same. Gifts of Discernment or Knowledge or Wisdom offer different benefits, as would gifts of Helps, Artistic Expression, Intercession, Faith, etc.

Another way to think of a passion is—it can be for a particular demographic (young children, senior adults, the unhoused, those at end-of-life, etc.), it can be for a cause or issue (think political, social, economic, justice, etc. issues), and it can be for the role you play in any/many situations. This last one is the hardest to get our heads and hearts around. Say my passion is for connecting people to resources that would make them more successful. Then, the specific cause/issue or demographic is less relevant—I might serve in many different places with a diverse set of people/causes as long as helping them succeed is part of the mix.

As mentioned at the Your Unique Design gifts class, our gifts may change over time. So might our passions. Perhaps you had a passion for working with a particular group for years and years. Now, you have no desire to do that. Great. The Lord scatters His heart for the world piece by piece into each of our hearts. Doing something different in this new season may be just exactly what He desires for you. Maybe it’s not Sunday School teaching but offering/developing gardening/cultivating skills on a gardening team or with a nonprofit like a food bank. Perhaps being an usher is no longer interesting, but becoming part of a hospitality team to welcome new people is a better fit. You get the idea.

Set aside some time to read more about gifts and about calling, passion, and purpose in other Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog posts. There’s a lot here!

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, DIOS. DONES. TÚ.: Tu llamado y diseño único (Spanish Edition), and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with hundreds of faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and executive leaders in a diversity of fields for four decades. She currently serves as Catalyst for Equipping at her church.

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis.

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