One of the most important questions we might ask from time to time is, who am I? It's kind of a deep question. And we might spend a lifetime pondering and discovering who we are. But it's an important question and the good news is that there are tools we can use.
One of them, which is a inventory that helps us discern how are we hardwired by God? What are our unique talents and gifts? What are our spiritual gifts?
And once we discover what our spiritual gifts are, we can then discern how we want to use them in this season of life.
Years ago, when I was about 30, I'm now 66, so I'm gonna be an old man here. When I was about 30, I didn't even know what spiritual gifts were.
But I took a spiritual gifts inventory at the suggestion of my spiritual mentor, and I discovered I'm a writer. I'm a teacher. I'm a mentor, I'm a learner, and I'm an encourager.
And recognizing those top gifts really helped me decide what my purpose was in life. I was certainly at that time, serving as a lawyer and, using those tools to help people with their legal problems, teaching workshops on estate planning, et cetera.
But I knew there was a second career I was going to enter into in my life. And that spiritual gifts inventory helped really point my sails toward the second half of life.
Over time, I discerned through my gifts, to start writing my podcast that I do every Monday. I discerned, to be able to offer workshops.
I went on and got a master's in pastoral counseling and became a spiritual director.
So ultimately by taking a spiritual gifts inventory, we discover how we're hardwired and what our purpose in life was. So I would invite you, if you get a chance, go to brianplachta.com and under the free resources tab there's a thing called, spiritual gifts inventory.
You can download that and take it, and what you will discover, is that there's several gifts, usually your top five that jump out at you, that some of which you know well. Yeah, I. I knew that about myself. I just needed to have that affirmed through this inventory.
But we also have some surprises that appear in those gifts. And so it's important to look at those, maybe meet with a spiritual mentor, a friend, and discern, yeah, how in this season of my life am I currently using those gifts, and how would I like to use those gifts? It can be one of the most important questions and one of the important, most important tools we can use as we ask, who am I?
Because in our lives, we all need a purpose. We need to know that what we do in life matters. And by taking that spiritual gifts inventory, it's like plugging into a light socket and coming alive and saying, oh, this is how I'm wired. This is my electricity. This is how I light up the world.
And by then discovering those gifts and then using them in life giving ways, we find passion and joy because it's fun to use our gifts. We're, excited to use 'em. Sometimes it stretches us a little bit and that's okay. It wouldn't be fun if it didn't stretch us and help us move forward.
But it also invites us into, using those gifts in ways that help other people grow. So using our gifts, discovering them, helps us discover how we're wired, who we are, and what our purpose in life is, and how we might use those to make the world a better place.
So I invite you to download under brianplachta.com, the Spiritual Gifts Inventory.
Take it, and if you have questions, shoot me an email after you've taken it and we can chat about it.
I hope you'll invest in yourself by taking the inventory, discovering at least to a major extent, how you're hardwired who you are, and then using your gifts and talents in life-giving ways for yourself and the world because the world needs you to use your gifts and talents.
God bless you. Have a great day.
