Day 31: Understanding Your Shape

What a crazy day. I went to bed at normal time last night but I was exhausted this morning. Then, the power went out at school around 4th period for most of the hour, so they announced that students would be released early. Then about 5 minutes before 5th period, the power came back on (I prayed that it would. . . sorry students) and stayed on the rest of the day. Then I found out that a student from my school was killed in a motorcycle/car accident that morning. I didn't know him, but still, it's always a tough thing (also, please pray for his family, friends, and everyone affected by his death). I left school early so that I could get to DeLand HS for S&E rehearsal, which went for three hours (6 students). And now I'm home, and I haven't worked out (!!!! I just realized it) and I have to write something up for my HS students to work on, because what we're currently doing is not working.

On the plus side, I still have a couple loaves of challah left.

(also, I pick things up with my toes more often than I probably should. . . what am I, a monkey??? "Things that I do that make me shake my head" for $400, Alex. . .)

And I have to say that I love the people at my church. I'm facebook friends with quite a few of them now, and some of the "dialogue" that goes on. . . simply priceless. I have gotten a few good chuckles, to say the least.

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I keep finding songs that I want people to listen to. This one relates to the chapter, rather than my pre-post ramblings. Remember, this talks about the APE of SHAPE (Spiritual Gifts and Heart from yesterday). So, the A is for Abilities. Ability=natural talent (if you couldn't tell, I like it when things are defined/explained. There are far too many words we throw around, not just in the Christian circle but in the world in general, and don't really bother to know what they really mean). God has given us all of our abilities, and we can use them all for God's glory (see here). That means that not only is it OK to have a career that isn't "spiritual," but God WANTS us to! We SHOULD do what we want to do. He just wants us to do it in a way that pleases Him and furthers His purpose, and if we are constantly aware of Him, this eventually becomes our natural way of working.

I love the facts in this chapter-
-we have between 500 and 700 skills and abilities
-we can store 100 trillion (that's 100,000,000,000,000) facts
-we handle about 15,000 decisions/second
-we can smell up to 10,000 different smells
-we can feel an item 1/25,000 (that's 0.00004) of an inch think
Pretty amazing.

The book makes a good point that sin is often the misuse or abuse of our God given abilities. That thought is something that might make us reconsider the motivation behind some of our temptations or sin patterns. What is it about me that makes me want to ______? Maybe we need a refocus of energy, or we need to find a different outlet/way to express what we want. Also, what we are able to do is what God wants us to do. I am able to serve in the music ministry, and I think God wants me to. I am exploring what else I am able to do to be able to serve, and once I figure that out, I will do it. I need to figure out what I'm good at, which seems simple enough, but really requires me to spend time undistracted, and that is a rarity in my life currently. Even with this blog I'm often "multi-tasking" (in quotes because of this article). I have set aside time for it, yes, and especially for getting through PDL, but I generally do it at the end of the day, when the wear and tear of the day is still filtering through my emotions and my brain is already planning for tomorrow.

The P is Personality. Another amazing fact: DNA can unite in 10▲2,400,000,000 different ways. That means 10 with 2.4 BILLION zeros after that. I was going to type the number out, and then I used my brain and thought about it. "Your uniqueness is a scientific fact of life." That's an understatement.

I am (apparently) an ISTJ, and actually the I and J are strong (which makes sense to me: introvert v. extrovert and judging v. perceiving) and the S and T were weak correlations (S is sensing v. intuition, and T is thinking v. feeling; I am a musician after all) (I remember doing that test in 8th grade and I was INTJ, so I guess not much has changed? Of couse I could take it again tomorrow and get INFJ!). There isn't a "right" or "wrong" personality for ministry. It's like what I tell my students about timbre- if there weren't different tone colors, music would get very boring. Life on earth would also get boring if everyone had the same personality and served God in the same way! Just look at how different each of the 12 disciples were. And it feels good to serve Him in a way that fits our personality; just ask me about this past Sunday morning (which already feels like it was a week ago).

Finally, the E stands for Experience. How many experiences are really in our complete control? When we sit down and analyze it, there really aren't that many, and even things we choose, like classes we take or musicians we accompany, a lot of times new and interesting things come up that we weren't planning on. The book lists 6 different types of experience: family, educational, vocational, spiritual, ministry, and painful. We often wonder why bad things happen to us. "What did I do to deserve this?" is usually what we ask. I know that I have, and the answer is generally unsatisfying, but that's because we are asking the wrong question. Everything happens for a reason, so we should ask "What should I take away from this experience?" That's so tough. So tough.

Point to Ponder: Nobody else can be me.
I don't think anyone else wants to be me! :)

Verse to Remember: 1 Peter 4:10- "God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God's many kinds of blessings." Living Bible
Hmmm. . . maybe I'll check out 1 Peter tonight. I went back to Ephesians last night, but I read just a small portion and reflected rather than trying to consume mass amounts (as I am prone to do, since I'm still trying to get through the whole Bible once through).

Question to Consider: What God-given ability or personal experience can I offer to my church?
I'm working on figuring that out! :-p But in all seriousness, these chapters are falling at a perfect time for me, because this is something I have been searching for within me before I even picked up this book.

My brain is most definitely an antelope tonight. I think I'm going to go to bed early (meaning now: it's 8:30).