it is great how God gives us certain gifts and talents that are not limited to one area of our life.
In the current NFL playoffs there are two Australians who are making a contribution for their teams….
Both of these men were stars at their Australian Football League clubs. Ben Graham was the captain of the Geelong Cats and Saverio Rocca was a leading goal scorer for the Collingwood Magpies and the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Because AFL is a fast paced, jumping, running non stop type of game their AFL careers were coming to an end. Fortunately, for them some people in the USA had identified that some AFL footballers had a skill that would be very handy in NFL, they could kick the ‘pigskin off the ball’. So Graham (now at Arizona Cardinals, previously with the New York Jets and New Orleans Saints) and Rocca (Philadelphia Eagles) were encouraged to try out (now there is another story of sacrifices they needed to make which I will share later). They both gained mentors and after some adjustments, time learning the rules and getting used to the weird game of NFL they are there punting for their teams in the play offs Now the gift that some thought was only good for AFL is useful in another arena, contributing to another team and entertaining a greater audience.
And in our lives God has given each one of us gifts and talents that we use to earn money, bring up a family and contribute to society.
And many of these gifts and talents can also be used by our local congregations and the wider church to contribute to growing God’s kingdom.
What we can learn from the above
- Identify the gifts and talents we have
- Offer yourself and your talents/gifts for use
- Be open to guidance and mentoring
- Understand how your gifts and talents can be used in the church and wider church. (Understand the environment, what it means to be church and what the church is on about, if Graham and Rocca had tried to use the talent in the same way they had Australia they would never have made NFL)
- Have a go/contribute.
