Lent: Making Time to Grow Your Gifts and Talents

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope, (Jer. 29:11).”

The last two years have been difficult. The world as we know it changed seemingly overnight. Lives were lost. Businesses and jobs were lost. Our day-to-day lives were significantly altered and the expression “the new normal” is now bandied about frequently. Yet, I for one haven’t settled into it. I’ve been moving forward, doing my job and holding all the pieces together to the best of my ability. Where I find I’m lacking is in all the things I once did for me, to grow me. Over the last couple of years too much suddenly became about necessity and adjusting to the things we suddenly couldn’t do. In the midst of this, I settled into making do versus doing.

Now, as we approach Lent, I’ve been thinking about doing more than simply what it takes to get by. I’ve been thinking about what I need to do to be the me I was created to be and making time to grow and develop the gifts, talents, and abilities that I’ve been blessed with and as such am meant to share. In short, I’m ready to shift from a “grow as I must” approach back to the “grow as I should” mentality that I’ve allowed to gather dust. I’m ready to (re)commit myself to improving.

“It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”

~Pope Saint John Paul II, Address on the 15th World Youth Day, (August 19, 2000).

With this in mind, here is how I’m approaching Lent:

Pray: Make time daily to pray for proper discernment of gifts and talents and the best ways to grow them.

Private Action: Sacrifice half an hour to an hour a day to grow and hone gifts and talents. (Yes, sometimes spending time on yourself is a sacrifice!)

Public Action: Lastly, look for ways to share gifts and talents. (Be bold! God entrusted them to you for a reason.)

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace, (1 Peter 4:10).”