Gifts

USING OUR GIFTS IN THE WORKPLACE

A Testimony for Sacred Space 9/26/10

New Hope Covenant Church

I have been working at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience, a small public Oakland high school, for the last six years. I teach math, all grades, and then dance class for a few weeks at the end of the year. Kids are always shocked by this, but these hips don’t lie. I chose to go into teaching based on my convictions about working towards justice and restoration in the lives of disadvantaged youth, and to just build and restore confidence and self-esteem through math, and, after the shock, dance.

Also, teaching came out of an exploration of the gifts and natural talents that I thought I had. Once I figured out what those were – I like creating things, presenting things, I think I’m good at making people feel comfortable - (I’m still figuring out others), I committed myself to stewarding the gifts and skills that I have for the sake of the gospel.

But in the day to day it’s rough. I know all the teachers in the house probably feel like the only days it feels worth all the effort, stress and hair loss are at the end of the year, when kids get more sentimental and realize the impact you’ve had on them all year. If only every day could be more full of gratitude and less of hair loss, my job would be the best job in the world.

I think when I first started I was full of zeal and passion for my ministry. Yes, I saw teaching as a ministry. I was loving my students and trying to help them be successful and breakout of cycles of injustice. I walked in to my classroom knowing Jesus was there before me. But the longer I taught the more I was exposed to the depth of need there was in my students – right here in Oakland. And the needs are deep. And the problems never seemed to go away. I began to be cynical about progress and disbelieving that there could be change. And without hope based on the power of God, my gifts lost their spiritual power.

I stopped praying in expectation; I only prayed in response to the crises that materialized every day. Even just this past week – probably one of the hardest weeks I’ve had in my six years – it was the reality of violence and death that led me to prayer rather than hope and vision for God’s kingdom. Of course there is a time and a place for us to fall on our knees and plead with God, especially when a student dies, but I think what I haven’t been doing is praying FOR God to work, ahead of time, in advance, inviting him into the equation. I have relied on my talents and my effort. I have only come to prayer when I feel like I can’t do enough or didn’t do enough – AFTER THE FACT.

When that happens – when you get better at what you do, you see results, and you attribute your successes to yourself and you own talents, work becomes just that, work. Just a job, not a ministry.

I’m coming to see that although God has created us with talents and gifts, if we do not use them with God’s purposes and intents in mind, they fall far short of their potential.

And I think it’s easy to rely on your gifts and talents and only turn to God when those don’t seem to be working. Friends, this is not what God intended. I want to see my gifts, all of our gifts, as FROM God and use those to motivate us in our day to day work; to go forth, in power and in love. Think about what a better teacher I would be if I prayed about how to use my gifts for the sake of my students, and if I saw how the person God made me to be was a part of a bigger mission, even in my workplace.

If we do not see our gifts as gifts from God, inspired by God, to be used by God, then our work will just be work. It is God who has equipped us, so we need to see the tools he has given us as more than we currently see them.

I’ve thought a lot about how we can support teachers and other ministry in the workplace type folks here at NH. I think the most critical thing is to pray together and support the intentional ministry that many of us do every day. We need to remind each other and rally together around a common mission, and affirm each other of the gifts we bring to those missions. I held one for teachers before the school year started and it was powerful to just know that James has got my back at Roosevelt, and Wendy is holdin’ it down in Berkeley, Jody in the district office, David and Angela and their principal power couple, and Shuli in the deep East, and all the others, not working alone but working together, toward a common goal to transform education in Oakland – not by our might and skills and talents, but transform it by the power of God, who yearns for justice to be restored. We need to pray, and keep praying together, and for each other, the whole church because, like my students demonstrate so well, it is oh so easy to forget what has been given, and what promise it has…