The Plumbline

Life Hack #5: Skill is the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, and aptitude, to do something well - even to the point of excelling at whatever it is you are called to do. There is a sense of confidence as the tasks are performed - ability revealed in complete dexterity to perform the functions required. Skill might be a learned thing - but it could be an innate aptitude to "just do it" - their aptitude revealing their ability consistently. You've heard it said, "maybe they are born with it", but some have to work quite hard to develop the same level of skill that the individual with "innate aptitude" just seems to slip right into. The skilled worker is in high demand - because they can be counted on to perform at a consistent level of "output". As scripture puts it, "they will serve before kings" - because the best of talent rises to the top, doesn't it? Observe people who are good at their work—skilled worke...

I think it was Norman Vincent Peale who reminded us it is always too soon to quit. There are a lot of things we chase after in life, sometimes quitting just short of ever achieving whatever it is we are chasing after. We chase after a lot of things in life, but I have come to the conclusion not all of them are really worth chasing. Sometimes we chase stuff which brings us grief and disappointment - not exactly the best outcome, huh? This chasin g is a part of a much deeper issue - we lack satisfaction or contentment, so we 'chase' and 'chase' and 'chase'. Contentment is a state of being "at ease" in our mind, soul, and spirit. We don't need activity because we are already at rest. Sometimes ceasing is the best remedy to chasing! Satisfaction really is that deeper sense of being grateful - fulfilled in what we have and who we are. Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you....

Each of us is given a measure of talent - scripture refers to it as NEEDED talent. It has a purpose - even if it is a small one. It may not be the 'biggest' or 'brightest' talent of all around you, but it is uniquely yours and you are designed to use it. Look at the widow with the one tiny mite (not even a penny). She gave it all - though it was nothing compared to the "sizable" financial offering of the wealthier or more well known individuals who came to the temple that day, it was EVERYTHING to her. Faithful hands and a yielded heart is all God ever wants. I have heard many a person hopelessly announce, "I don't have anything to contribute." The problem is they are comparing their 'talent' to another's talent and if they don't think it measures up quite as well, they discount their talent. We each possess a NEEDED talent - uniquely our own - specifically to be used by us in the blessing of those around us - in small ways or l...

The Apostle Paul seemed like quite a well-educated, very capable guy when you looked at him from the outside - on the surface, we can appear just about anyway we like, but it is what is at the center of a man that really makes the man.  Paul took honest moments like this in the letter to the church at Ephesus to explain his own personal struggle with feeling "ill-prepared" for what God had called him to do.  He tells us what he recognizes as his calling on his life - to help people understand and respond to the message of salvation - something he felt very ill-prepared to do, but which he knew with a certainty was what he was to go about doing.  It was this message that he spent the remainder of his years attempting to get out to as many people as possible, establishing them in the truth that God had made a way for all people to have access to the atoning sacrifice of his dear Son, Jesus. Sometimes the thing we feel the least equipped to do is the very thing we should go ...

Have you ever been guilty of identity theft?  Now, don't all rush to admit it, but at one time or another in your life, I think you probably were!  You see, anytime you compare yourself to another and then evaluate whether you can "conform" to the image you see of the other is really a form of trying to commit identity theft!  If you actually pull it off, conforming to the image of another, you have done the deed.  Problem is . . . we often compare ourselves to a flawed image - making what we conform to only able to reproduce another flawed image! God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them   reflecting our nature s o they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, t he birds in the air, the cattle, a nd, yes, Earth itself,  and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”   God created human beings;  he created them godlike, r eflecting God’s nature.   He created them male and female.  (Genesis 1:26-28 MSG) Anyti...