The interview that changed everything: How I discovered the gift God had already given me

In December 2013, I was sitting across the table from the chair of the English department at Union County College, interviewing for my first adjunct professor job. I had finished grad school the year before, and it was time to move forward in my career, but I was nervous. I had no real teaching experience. I was fresh out of my master’s degree, unsure of my calling and wondering whether I’d actually be any good in a classroom.

The conversation flowed easily. We talked about studying in the UK, why I was interested in teaching English and what kind of teacher I hoped to become. Then, as the interview came to a close, he shook my hand and said something I’ve never forgotten.

“Listen, I can tell right away that you have something you can’t teach. You have an energy about you, a relatability, a gift, that will make you a natural teacher. I have no doubt you will excel in this profession.”

He called out the gift of teaching in me. When I stepped into the classroom a month later, despite my nerves, I felt alive. I wouldn’t have called myself a Christian at that point, but even then it felt as though I had uncovered a piece of my calling.

Semester after semester, I began to see how naturally teaching came to me. I wanted to grow in it and learn everything I could. Then, about four years later, after a move to California, I opened the door to Jesus in the upper room of a church during an Alpha course. From that point on, I began to understand this gift differently. Teaching was not simply something I happened to be good at; it was something God had woven into me. And as I spent time with Jesus, I began to see that gift awakened in new ways. That’s why discovering our gifts matters. When we know what God has placed within us, we begin to live more fully into who he created us to be.

This is what I think Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians 12 when he writes: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” The phrase that strikes me is “to each one”.

He doesn’t say the gifts of the Spirit are given only to the especially confident, or the people with visible platforms, or those who seem spiritually impressive. 

He doesn’t say the gifts of the Spirit are given only to the especially confident, or the people with visible platforms, or those who seem spiritually impressive. To each one. To ordinary people with ordinary lives, allowing us to walk in the power of the Spirit wherever God has placed us. And that means we have to ask: do we know what God has given us? Are we walking in our gifts? Have we brought our gifts before him and asked the Holy Spirit to breathe life into them?

I think it’s possible to use our natural gifts without depending very much on the Spirit. We can be capable, competent, even fruitful-looking, and still be operating mostly out of our own strength. But the gifts God gives us were never meant to be detached from him. They need his life in them, his power and his love.

That’s part of what spiritual formation does in us. It’s not only about becoming more disciplined or more knowledgeable; it’s about becoming more surrendered. It’s about allowing the Spirit of God to shape us so that what he has placed within us becomes surrendered to him, alive in us and available for his Kingdom purposes.

And I wonder how many of us have allowed our gifts to go a little dormant. Perhaps not through rebellion, but through tiredness, disappointment or comparison. Perhaps we have looked at someone else and decided that what we carry isn’t as valuable. Perhaps we have quietly absorbed the standards of the world, or even the standards of Christian culture, and started to believe that only certain kinds of gifts really matter.

But Paul says, “to each one.” That means none of us gets to dismiss ourselves too quickly.

The gifts of the Spirit are not prizes for the impressive. They’re not proof that we have arrived.

The gifts of the Spirit are not prizes for the impressive. They’re not proof that we have arrived. They are given to ordinary, surrendered people for the common good. So we don’t need to wait until we feel fearless, qualified or spiritually impressive before we offer God what he’s placed within us. We bring him our weakness, our insecurity and our willingness, and ask him to breathe his Spirit into what he has already given.

There is only one of you. Your heavenly Father knows exactly how he made you, and he knows exactly where he has placed you. None of it is accidental. The gifts, the season, the community and the work in front of you, none of it is something he’s careless with.

So I’m asking myself as much as I’m asking you: are we walking in what God has given us? Are there gifts we have neglected because we’re tired, afraid or discouraged? Have we buried anything because comparison made it feel small? Have we stopped asking the Spirit to move through our lives because we have become so used to striving on our own?

You are called to live as the woman God created you to be, to walk boldly in your gifts and to bring what you have been given into the spaces where God has placed you. Not perfectly, and not in a way that looks like anyone else, but faithfully, prayerfully and with the Spirit’s help.

And as we bring our gifts before Jesus, he’s able to awaken them, deepen them, purify them and use them for the common good.

A Prayer Practice for Discerning Your Gifts

Sit quietly with God and ask the Holy Spirit to make you attentive, honest and open.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 slowly, paying attention to the phrase “to each one”. Receive the truth that God has given gifts by his Spirit not only to others, but to you.

Then pray:

“Holy Spirit, show me what you have placed within me. Where have you gifted me for the common good? Where have I dismissed or hidden what you have given?”

Spend a few minutes reflecting:

• Where do I sense God’s life and joy when I serve others?
• What do people often come to me for?
• Where have I seen fruit come through my life?
• What have others named in me that I have found hard to receive?

Write down anything that comes to mind without judging it too quickly. Then offer it back to God:

“Lord, awaken the gifts you have placed within me. Purify my motives, deepen my love, and teach me to use what you have given for the good of others and the glory of Jesus.”

Over the next week, ask two or three trusted people: “Where do you see God’s grace at work in me?”

Bring their words back into prayer, noticing what stirs humility, joy, courage or a desire to serve.