There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:4
What Paul is talking about in this passage are particular charisms, or gifts, being discerned by the Corinthian Christians. It’s natural enough for us to apply Paul’s teaching to our own lives, and even in a slightly broader way: as guidance for discerning and understanding how we can serve God’s people with our own particular gifts.
But I have to wonder about moments in my own life in which I just might have allowed the call to discern my gifts to become a distracting temptation. How could this be? Well, actually pretty easily. For as I’m busy looking inward, a lonely elderly neighbor, an ailing co-worker, a family member suffering silently under my very own roof are all waiting. No specialized gifts or talents required. Only love, poured out from the heart of Christ.
Jesus, form me in your gift of sacrificial love, above all.
Amy Welborn
Originally published January 20, 2013
