What if This is Your Secret Gift?

 

            I don’t remember now what sparked the conversation, but I won’t soon forget the conversation itself.

            I have a handful of friends I talk to through the Marco Polo app, and one of them is my former co-worker, Abagail. She’s the friend I filled in for at the Kokomo church while she was on maternity leave, right before the pandemic. She had been my friend even before that, and after our paths ran parallel for that work season, we became even closer. I love chatting with her and hearing about the things happening in her world throughout each week. (She has two kiddos now, so there are always stories.)

            Back when I was still looking for work, we talked about vocations (though I don’t remember the context) and Abagail said something I’d never before considered. She said sometimes she wonders if there’s something out there in the great wide world that she would be so talented at doing, but she’s never done it and doesn’t know it’s her secret gift.

            (As a quick note…Abagail is marvelously talented in so many areas. She is creative and organized, and I haven’t met anyone else in my life who can cook, bake, or throw a party quite like she can – no exaggeration. She has a background in culinary arts, but her skills in quality and presentation are a natural gift that can’t possibly be learned in a classroom setting.)

            Abagail went on to say that sometimes she dreams about trying this hobby or that – or even a particular career – and she wonders if she might find it’s her gift she never knew she had.

            I thought back to my days in Financial Aid. I would call myself an okay counselor. It wasn’t a natural gift for me. I didn’t love it. I found aspects that I could do well, but the job as a whole was most certainly not my secret gift.

            Then I went into radio, and at the beginning, I was terrible. I’ve heard my early recordings, and they are nothing short of intensely painful. I like to think I improved over the four years I was there, and of all the jobs I’ve ever had, I felt like that one ended up feeling the most natural to me. It’s subjective to say I felt I was gifted in it, but from where I sat, it felt like the closest thing to a secret gift I’ve ever known.

            While I improved in what I did in my advocate work at WillowBridge, I don’t think I could be remotely accused of being gifted at that. And the jury is still out on my work in writing grant proposals. I hope I find a natural gifting in it, but we’ll see.

            Writing is the only hobby I’ve ever found that tends to flow effortlessly out of me. I wish I could sit and play the piano beautifully, but after eleven years of practice and lessons, I think we can safely say it’s not my first and most effortless gift. Singing isn’t the secret gift either – and great apologies go to the shower and car for that truth. I took sign language lessons for a while too, and perhaps I could have continued to hone those skills if my lessons had continued, but they didn’t.

            Maybe there’s a hobby out there somewhere I haven’t uncovered just yet that will flow from me so easily that I won’t be able to turn away from it. Could it be playing the harp? Watercolor painting? Making bread? I don’t know. I haven’t found it yet.

            Still, I love the idea that something could be lurking around the corner that I could call my secret gift. What a pleasant surprise it would be to uncover it and live in the joy of using it.

            What would you want your secret gift to be?