August 13, 2019

Shannon has a beautiful registered Paint mare named Hope. She is calm, never startles, doesn’t kick or bite, very affectionate, an excellent rider, and much smarter than I am. Hope really is a great horse. Unfortunately, Hope has cancer on her eye, which left untreated will end her life.

Yesterday I took a personal day off from work to take Hope to Texas A&M. The Large Animal Veterinary School had the necessary equipment and expertise to perform the procedure on Hope’s eye.

While I had been to the vet school before, that trip was a tragic emergency in the middle of the night, transporting a horse that had been bitten by a rattlesnake. Sadly, the horse did not survive. Being consumed with a sense of urgency for the horse and the mad rush of everything that had happened, I had not taken a good look at the school’s facilities. This time I did.

The clinic for the vet school is huge, has world-class treatment equipment, the latest information, dedicated professors, and many students learning how to heal. And while we could not have asked for a better veterinarian than the one who took the time to fully explain to Shannon exactly what was going to happen to her horse and answer all her questions, it was the students that got me thinking.

Here were all these young students with the goal of becoming veterinarians – becoming healers, which I believe is one of the ways they are answering God’s call for their lives. And while God gave these people the gift of healing, they still need to hone the skills of their gift with education and experience. It’s the same for all of us.

God has given each of us gifts. And if you think you don’t have a gift, you are wrong. That’s because God created you for a purpose. You are more than an act of biology or luck of the draw. You have a reason and God has given you a gift that supports your reason for being. God expects you to identify your gift, fully develop it, and use your gift to make the world a better place – and for each of us, the gift is different.

But no matter what your gift, know that it ultimately comes for God. This is why Paul said, ” For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Figure out your gift and be the person God created you to be.

Prayer: Dear Gracious Heavenly God, open my eyes so that I may see my gift. Give me what I need to use my gift to its full potential. Use me for your purpose. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

You have a gift. God expects you to use it.

Just for the record, I have always assumed my gift is my extraordinarily good looks, but Shannon has assured me that’s not it. If it’s not my looks, I wonder what my gift is? I’ll have to figure it out.

I pray your day is filled with joy and laughter.

Tom Robbins