Gimme a Shovel

Yesterday, Rhys & I set off for IV’s National Black Staff conference in Atlanta.  I nursed Rhys on lift off to help decrease the effects of cabin pressure on popping little ears.  I think as a thank you, Rhys spent the rest of both flights doing this…

Like usual, it’s been a great time of catching up with all my staff peeps from around the country, drinking deeply from God’s Word, laughing our heads off and enjoying each others company.

As an ice-breaker each of us had to write a thank you note to the person on our right.  We were told to thank them for any the wonderful things you see, appreciate or want to emulate about the person, etc.  One of my staff colleagues slash friends slash blog readers and her hubby happened to be on my left.

They wrote me this sweet note…

“Grace, I cheated!  But I’m thankful for your wisdom, creativity, and God-given talent.  Thank you for being so willing to disciple from afar. :)”  -Tereva

“Grace, I’m thankful for the honesty that is so core to your relationships.  I’m thankful that youv’e allowed God to use your struggles, fears and your past to teach, heal and comfort others.  I’m thankful that you use your powerful ability to influence others to draw them to the LORD.  I’m thankful for you open-ness to learning and changing, and that in all things you work to glorify the Lord”. – Matt

And of course, being ever-s0-thoughtful, my first response -after they read it to me lovingly- was “um, can I post this on my blog tonight… I need some new material.”

What a goof, eh?  Anyway, I thought their kind words were so sweet and it’s awesome to have others point out nice things about you when your feeling like a BIG jerk about the way you are in other areas of life.

Not me, of course.  I’m just sayin’…

So, for what I didn’t say in person last night to Matt & Tereva, I’ll say now:

THANK YOU!

Moving right along…

Today, we got to hear from two gifted preachers.  Rev. Paula Fuller & the hilariously gifted, Ed Ollie.  Both brought unique and challenging things to think about.

One in particular that got me today was about not burying your talent and making excuses about why you are, in fact burying your talent.

That.

Is.

Me.

I could go on and on (& on) with excuses about why I shouldn’t work on my book.  I mean, I’m not a writer.

Per se.

I’m busy.

I’m working on my blog now and then.

I’ve got 2 kids now.

What about working on my graduate degree?

I’m not trained in writing, never taken a class and in my opinion have a fairly limited command of the English language.  Which is, ahem, the only language I know.  (Well, aside from those two semesters of Ancient Greek I took last year.  Although, I’m not sure being able to pick up a New Testament written in Ancient Greek and be able to read one paragraph of the words of Jesus after FIVE hours and many scribbled notes, is exactly knowing the language).  I digress.

Point is, I have many excuses why I’m not on working on the book I feel called to do and uniquely gifted to write.  But, if I keep parading on and on behind all my excuses because of FEAR am I just being lazy and trifling and deserving of rebuke?

If it’s really true that anyone who has any gift to offer people/the world/society in general is selfish for not giving that gift then… well, call me selfish because I am scared out of my boots.  You may as well gimme a shovel.  Bury.  Bury.  Bury.

I do hope one day soon I’ll be able to tell you that I took a long break from blogging because I was working on my book.

In other news…

I’m super excited to see an OLD friend from high school while I’m in Atlanta.  In 11th grade he was my boyfriend for oh one month, and then he liked one of my best friends better and got with her for the next 3 years or something like that.  I wasn’t even salty because I chose his cousin instead!  Isn’t high school drama so ridiculous?  You couldn’t pay me $50,000 to relive high school.

Maybe, $100,00. 🙂

It will be great to catch up with him and his wife and another friend from years past.

Back to my conference.  Looking forward to what God has for us until Saturday. As for Rhys…

He’s just been hangin’ out…