What is your “gift” or unique talent in life? Is there something in which you truly excel? It’s important to be able to identify your gift, but it’s also important to do all you can to hone and develop that gift——whatever it is. According to the parables of Jesus, the worst thing to do is to bury it, be ashamed of it (unless it’s something you should be ashamed of!) or deny that God has given it to you.
This is one of the reasons we focus on “Majors” at camp. We have ten, and each one is designed to let camper either improve their skills in that sport, or be introduced to a sport to which they’ve dreamed to excel.
The camp offers forty sports—-every imaginable sport a child to which a child anywhere in the world would get excited. But ten of those sports are special—-the camper attends those activities at least two hours per day, every day, for one week. The Majors are: Tennis, Golf, Equitation, Crafts, Body Conditioning, Water Skiing, Shooting, Fishing, Swimming and Wilderness Adventure.
Some children come to our camp and learn, for their first time, how to fish, swim, ride a horse or water ski, and later discover that their gift is that activity. Many return to us teaching the sport to new campers and a few have gone on to play or coach that sport professionally.
This focus teaches campers that regardless of their passions and gifts, they still have to work and practice at it. No one is born proficient in tennis or golf—-it takes time, discipline and the right kind of mentors, coaches and encouragers.
As a follower of Christ my “major” is to dedicate my life to honoring God; that’s demonstrated in the manner in which I love others and show genuine concern for their well-being. No, I am not particularly gifted intellectually, athletically or in any other way that might stand out. But I am putting those gifts He’s given me to the best use I can in the time that remains. So I write blogs, give short devotions, listen to those that are hurting, and hope to humbly show that God can use anyone, regardless of their abilities… or inabilities—-I am living proof.
And I have a great encourager in the Holy Spirit, a great mentor in Jesus Christ, and a Father that mercifully has given me a gift!
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