So today I rewatched that movie with Will Smith in it called 'The Pursuit of Happyness". Will Smith plays a character named Chris Gardner who is down in the dumps and getting deeper. He's smart as a whip but not living up to his potential. He gets in a hole and now he's got to get out of it. He ends up talking his way into an internship with a stock broker firm. Throughout the movie, he has one stroke of badluck after another. Sleeping in a homeless shelter with his son and the like. At the end of the movie though, all his striving and all his hard work and perserverance pays off. I won't tell anymore because I don't want to ruin the movie for you, however I'm going to talk to you about my thoughts as I watched the movie.
I completely related to this guy. God gave me some fairly unique talents, and I spent the first 3 years out of highschool trying to do everything except the things that used those talents. I was trying so hard to do all the stuff I LIKED to do instead of the stuff I could do well. (Which I now know that I ALSO "LIKE" to do.) As a result, I'm also struggling financially. Life's an uphill battle if you don't have money, and unless you work hard to get out of it, you're not going to see any results.
Now I'm starting to recognize my talents and I'm attempting to use them for Gods work, as well as incorporating them into my future plans and endeavours. I figured I'll take some time now to talk about what I have learnt some of my talents are.
Writing
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This is a big one. I've always been able to write. I can get my thoughts out more coherently on paper than I can in person to people. I would much rather have a serious conversation with someone over MSN or via email than in person. I have a talent of taking the thoughts in my head and ideas in my head and converting them into imagery and analogies. Whether it be in lyrical, poetry or story form, I can convey what my brain is thinking.
Dreaming and Imagination
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God gave me a wonderful mind. Nothing excites me more than sitting and staring off into space exploring my thoughts. My dreams are never simple and never boring. 90% of the dreams I have are never in places that I've ever been. It's always some new place and some area and some new landscape. I can sit down, imagine a house with many rooms and spend an hour just daydreaming and exploring that house. I can also imagine conversations with people. Alot of my conclusions and theories and ideas come from having a conversation with someone in my head. I never know the person, but I like to think that sometimes its God. (Now's where you insert the 'oh gee, danny's skitzo' comment) But no, it's not like that. I can turn the conversations off.
Communication and Counseling etc
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When my friends come to me with issues, or problems, I have this skill where I can help them figure out what to do. I don't know how I know, or why I know, but usually I know just the right thing to say. Some of the time, I don't even know that the other person is having a bad day or something. I'll have just randomly said something nice to them, or complimented them and they'll be like 'Wow, that just made me feel alot better.'. Even in my own relationships and life issues, I can deal with them. Anytime I've gotten into a fight or argument with someone, I've been able to resolve it. I don't have any friends I'm awkward with because of past greivances.
Problem Solving, Intelligence and Wisdom
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I can solve most problems. I can see something that needs to be done, and something that gets in the way of that thing getting done. I can usually figure out pretty quickly what needs to be done to fix things. In elementary school, the teacher would always give us problem solving questions, and I was always the first one done. It didn't matter the problem. I could see different tricks, different angles. If something doesn't work one way, approach it completely different. That's why I'm good at computers and programming and stuff. The program you want to make is the problem, and I know how to get from a blank page to the having all the code neccesary to complete the program so that it does what it needs to do. God gave me intelligence. I can read, I can write, I can spell, I can do math, I can remember facts until the cows come home. All these things that I can do. Give me a piece of technology and I'll have it figured out lickety split. That's just the way I am. I won't go so far as to say that I'm wise. I will say that I'm wise in the things that I've experienced. Wisdom only comes with experience. Wisdom is knowing how to use your intelligence in situations. If you haven't experienced a situation, then you haven't gained the wisdom. Every day, you get a little wiser until that day when you pass on and go to heaven. At that point, you'll be your wisest.
Music and Singing
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I LOVE MUSIC! I love every aspect of it. I'm always humming, and most of my free time hobbies revolve around creating something with music. Either writing music, playing my guitar or listening to music. Or talking about music. God gave me a gift of being able to hold a tune. He knew I wouldn't be the best at remembering to pray, so he gave me a love of music and praise and a voice to do so with. The more I've gotten to know God, the more I get excited at church when it comes time to sing to him. I'm excited about his world, and I'm excited about who he is. And everytime I sing, that's my chance to share that with him in my most favourite way. When I write a song, I sing it to him. Its almost like a kid showing his dad a picture he drew at school. I'm like 'Hey God, look what I wrote, isn't it awesome'
Joy, Postivity and Humour
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Even when I'm feeling down low and sad, I still love to laugh. When I was deep in depression and never left my apartment for anything except food, church and youth, I still was able to laugh at things. I can find ways to laugh at so many little things, and I can make it infectious. Some people have told me that they love talking to me because after saying something, I'll just remark on whatever little bit of humour there was in what I said. They like my spontaneousness and my honest humour. I always have a positive attitude. In EVERY situation, I can point out something good about it. When friends have a bad situation happening, I can usually cheer them up by pointing out something minisculy positive about it. Say that you rear end someone and total your car and now you have no car and you were at fault. I can point out 'hey, now with no car, you won't have to spend extra money on gas' or something like that. In a case like this, that statement is more funny than positive, but a laugh is always enough to lift someone towards happiness.
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That's the main talents I see myself as having. It's only recently that I sat down and thought about them. Now it's time to figure out how I can use them for God and for my future. All of those talents work together in a way.
Writing works with music naturally, since I can sing songs to portray meanings and the like. Imagination and Dreaming helps the writing and music. Counseling and Communication would help me to write things to help people. My joy and humour can help me write songs or stories to make people happy and to make them laugh. My intelligence helps me to know how to manipulate all forms of communication and technology to spread my writing, music, ideas and imagination around.
God has been revealing an idea to me about how I can use all those talents together as well as my future profession to help share his word and to reach people. Like Chris Gardner in the movie, I'm finally recognizing my own potential, and soon I too will reach the point where I'm doing what I'm meant to do and where I've reached that happyness.
James 1:12 has always been a meaningful verse to me. "Blessed is a man who perserveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him".
God has promised me something great. He put me into a life where nothing was made easy for me. That's my test, he doesn't want me to give up. I have to perservere despite all my circumstances and then I'll get what he's promised. It's such an exciting thing when you can finally taste the fact that you're going in the right direction finally. I spent 3 years after highschool, casting about, never catching anything. Now I finally decided to fish in a different spot, with a different rod and a different lure and at a different time of day. Now I'm bound to catch a big on. With God on my hook, how could I not?
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