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Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this (1 Corinthians 12:1, NLT).
A life speaking our voice (calling) is a blessing. But do we feel blessed?
There is a phrase “finding your voice,” which means discovering who you are. God has given us spiritual gifts and ministries, and these areas need our unique voice.
Finding this voice gives joy and also increases the effectiveness of our calling—our message should be a nail that can be driven deep.
I recently read about an author who interviewed Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, John Candy, Martin Short, Jay Leno, and others, asking how long it took them to find their voice. The answer was seven years.
They found their voice, and it made their careers.
If I ask you about the “voice” of John Grisham, Agatha Christie, Howard Stern, JRR Tolkien, or Steven King, then you know what to expect when reading their books.
Let’s consider what Interruptions would be like without the OGV (Old Guy Version [voice] of the Bible) and a good HHHHMMMHHM every now and then.
Our gifts, ministry, and calling depend upon knowing our voice.
I have a good friend who teaches grace. Like Bubba’s litany of the differing ways that you can cook shrimp in the movie Forest Gump, my friend always brings his teaching and comments back to God’s grace.
That’s my friend’s voice—grace, grace, and more grace.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t understand our voice; it seems mystical from the wilderness of our souls, but nothing specific. Let’s read what the Bible says about Jeremiah. . .
The Lord gave me this message: I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
We may not be prophets to the nations, preachers about grace, or best-selling novelists, but we can find our voice.
I once worked in construction for a few days. Yep, not my voice.
On the first day, my task was nailing a large spike through a 2×12 twelve foot long beam of oak. Many bent nails later, I had given up, when a veteran came up to me, took a nail, and with one swing hit it deep into the beam.
That guy had a voice!
He then looked at me and said, “I don’t think you have a career in construction.” He was correct, which is why I now write Interruptions.
HHHHMMMHHM!