by Maggie Wallem Rowe

It’s the Monday after the conference – anyone feeling a little blue?

 I have one question for you: When’s the last time you said, “I do”?

You’re home again now, suitcase unpacked, conference notes tidied into a pile or strewn across your desk. It’s natural to experience a letdown after a big event you’ve anticipated for months. The adrenalin has subsided, and weariness has set in.

Or perhaps you’re depressed because you weren’t able to attend this year. You watched conferees posting on social media as they bubbled with excitement about the appointments they had or the new connections they made. No wonder you feel left out.

Whether you were at Ridgecrest this year or not, you’re serious about using the gifts and talents God has given you to build the Kingdom. You’re quite sure writing is one of them, but what if he has other work for you to do as well that’s every bit as significant?

Before my husband and I joined our new church in the Smokies several years ago, we took a six-week membership class that included a Spiritual Gifts inventory. I balked at first. I’ve been a Christ follower for over a half-century now. Why should I take a test like that when I’ve been an active, committed member of several gospel-centered churches during those years? Who needs it at this age?

I did. I do.

When it came to unpacking spiritual gifts and gifts-based service, the pastor offered us a tool of 85 statements we were to answer based on our life experience, both past and present, not as we would wish to be but as we are.

I’ve spent decades serving alongside my husband in pastoral ministry as well as individually in areas God called me into regionally and nationally. Honestly, I thought I knew what my spiritual gifts were:

Hospitality – making others feel welcome and comfortable.

Teaching – imparting scriptural truth through instruction and practical application. (Both writing and speaking fit here).

Mercy – ministering to others with compassion.

These are the areas I not only gravitate toward but am passionate about. When we serve in the realm of our giftedness, it has little to do with natural ability and everything to do with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

And funny thing–after the test was scored, my top three spiritual gifts of the ones listed were revealed to be exactly these same three.

But here’s why I’m telling you this: of the 20 gifts included in this particular tool, how many do I have?  Three.

And how many do I not have?  Seventeen!

My lowest scores were in the areas of apostleship, administration and evangelism. No wonder God has never called me to plant churches, run an organization or travel as an evangelist!

The late Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, says this: “Each gift is an invitation and provides the means to participate in the work of Jesus…We are being invited into a working relationship in the operations of the Trinity.”

In other words, friends, when we join the family of God we’re joining the family firm as well. When God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit call us into service, we’re also given what we need to accomplish the work.

“There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone” (I Cor. 12:4-6 NRSV).

The next time you’re beating up on yourself for everything you’re not or wishing for skills and talents that you lack, take a Spiritual Gifts inventory. It’s a marvelous reminder that you’re not called to do everything, but God has equipped you for work in this world that will not get done without you. Writing is only one of the gifts you possess.

I almost didn’t take the test, but I’m glad I did.  I needed the reminder.

And when God asks if you’re willing to serve in that area in which he’s gifted you, I hope you’ll say it too.

“I will. I do.”

Maggie Wallem Rowe is a national speaker, dramatist, and author whose first book, This Life We Share, was a finalist for the 2021 ECPA Christian Book Award in the New Author category. Maggie has also been a TEDx presenter. Her second book, Life is Sweet, Y’all: Wit and Wisdom with A Side of Sass, released from Tyndale House Publishers in 2022. Maggie writes weekly from Peace Ridge, her home in the mountains of North Carolina. MaggieRowe.com.