For example, some of the finest preachers that the church has produced were not talented as orators. Some had to conquer speech deficiencies, extreme nervousness, and similar defeating situations. That did not keep them from being gifted preachers--in every sense of the word. Some of you may not have a natural talent for teaching. Your talent might lie in you ability to empathize with young people. Both lesson preparation and presentation may prove to be a real struggle. But because of your great empathy and your willingness to work, you discover a spiritual gift as a teacher.

Even when we have certain natural abilities, they must find expression according to a particular need or opportunity. Someone once asked Isaac Stern why he took up the violin. Why not the piano, for example? Stern replied that the violin was the instrument his mother gave him. "I believe music is from the heart," says Stern, "the instrument is just the apparatus. I have nice fingers. I could have been a good pianist. My mother gave me the violin."

It is interesting that in this particular list of gifts in Romans 12 St. Paul includes contributing with liberality, giving aid with zeal, doing acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Obviously those are not gifts that require a particular talent--only a recognition of a need or an opportunity. There are many such needs and opportunities. You may not even know you have a particular gift until you respond to a need.

Ron Newhouse