127. But What If I’m Not Good at Anything?

Posted by Conrad on 11.18.11 in Devotionals.


I got this great question in reply to figuring one’s calling, [How can you figure out your calling] “if you aren’t good at anything?”

To answer this we first have to define what tells us what our callings are, and these are:

Gifts, Talents and Resources.

And included in your Resources are personality traits.  And this is a good place to begin because our personalities are a little bit easier to figure out than if we’re talented at accounting, nursing or offshore drilling.

Maybe we don’t know our personality strengths, but we do know our weaknesses – and that’s actually a great place to start.

What we can do is figuring what we suck at and find its opposite.

For example, I’m very non-confrontational, which makes me totally suck by allowing problems to go too long, confronting repairmen about weird charges, or allowing tenants to be late on their rent by like three weeks.

But that same ‘weakness’ can be a strength because sometimes a non-confrontational person is needed because maybe a family member just needed a bit of grace and time to get over something and you can be the person they’ll turn to since you didn’t confront them every other day.

Another example is I’m not emotional and for some reason I always unintentionally look grumpy, which makes me terrible where a softer personality is needed like with children, the grief stricken, teenage girls, etc.  But others prefer a direct approach. So if someone needs a kick in the pants and wants someone to be blunt with them – then I’m your guy.

Take a look at this detailed diagram.

There’s always an opposite of a trait you have.  You just have to find the good part of it and match it up with the right person and situation.

Remember, ministry is about relationships.  And relationships are about people.  And people are different.  Which means God needs certain types of people to minister to certain types of people.

God will be able to use you where I would fail.

There’s things we all have in common… we all have relationships (family, work, neighbors, school, church, whatever) and we also have a common calling to minister.

So even if we haven’t figured out some specific callings like “God wants you to be an accountant for 72.4 months”, God has still given us all general callings.

And general callings are a great place to start because it can have an immediate impact – you just have to wait till the next time you run into another person.

Hope that helps.

If anyone has any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

General Calling: Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”