Workin’ the Gift

Do you know your gift? Hope so! You are filled with wonderful gifts and talents. We all have something to contribute to this big rotating world we call earth. You may be well aware of your gifts, and others still have talent that is about to bubble to the surface; at any rate, you have talent.

Even though talent is a big grace, talent still takes work. It’s natural to look at someone who is famous for their talent and feel small and immeasurable. It’s natural to look at someone who is famous for their talent and wish you had that particular skill. What’s wrong with these natural tendencies? One, never measure yourself against someone else, because when you do that, you are really saying that God doesn’t have a special individual plan for you…and obviously HE does. Secondly, if God wanted you to have that particular skill, then HE would have given it to you; don’t wish to have someone’s gift, because you have your own, which is the right gift for you to contribute to this world.

As stated earlier, talent is given and maintained by grace, but it still takes work. Let’s look at an amazing singer for example. We’ve all had that favorite singer of ours that we sing along to in the shower, car, and karaoke bars. We buy their CD’s, go to their concerts, and we memorize the lyrics to our favorite song. Have you ever watched one of those competition shows (you know the one’s I’m referring too)? Every year they get contestants who come for the audition believing to the core that they are the next Mariah or Whitney. Why do they believe this? Apparently, everyone in their rolodex has told them how amazing they sing. You know the next scene. They open their mouth and it sounds like a tortured cat. They can’t sing. They don’t have the ear to sing. And then their dreams get smashed with a reality check from the judges.

The point to the example is this:

You have to be yourself. Don’t ever try to be like someone else. The gift was given to your favorite singer, in the same respect, your gifts were not given to your favorite singer. Be happy for their gifts as you are for your own individual gifts.

When you have a specific gift, all your fans have to do is enjoy it. I can’t sing to save my life, but when I buy that CD…all I have to do is press play and enjoy. For the talented artist who is gifted for song, has to work really hard to maintain that gift…they can’t just sit back and enjoy it. They have vocal coaches and vocal warm-up exercises. Some singers don’t talk all day before a performance in order to save their voice for the show. Some performers like the temperature of the room to be at a certain degree to sound better. They have to memorize song after song after song. They have to work on musicality. They have to rehearse. They can spend months in an expensive recording studio with high tech equipment and song writers and producers, just to make that CD…that same CD you own and only have to press play to enjoy. It’s work for the artist and pleasure for you.

Enjoy your gifts and allow others to enjoy yours, because at the end of the day…we’re all workin’ the gift!

"If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."
~ Michelangelo Buonarroti