My God Given Gift is…

We all want to ‘make it’. We didn’t spend countless hours in classrooms at universities, taking classes that had nothing to do with our majors so that we would be ‘well rounded’, risk our lives on highways in substandard cars, going to visit friends at neighboring colleges, nor take out loans that lost our ‘interest’ long ago, for nothing. We did it because somewhere in our lives, we believed that we could change the world, make our families proud or at least make a six figure income. So we did what we were told and followed suit. We said goodbye to people we had known since grade school and to our hopeful family members and we went our separate ways. We walked into dorm rooms trying to mentally prepare to ‘live’ with a person we had never even met, from a part of the country we had only read about, all because we knew that we should, go to college so we could get a ‘good job’. Most of us are ‘still searching’, many of us ‘don’t have a clue’ but some of us ‘made it’

For whatever and wherever, ‘it’ may be for you, only you know if you are there yet. For some people, once it is realized that our journey may not be as easy as we would have liked, they become complacent in mediocrity and ‘settle’ for exactly where they are in life, while for others, the quest for ‘more’ is their daily norm as they are never comfortable in their current set of circumstances, never accepting it as a permanent condition.

While we may have the best laid plans before us as adults we realize that a thing called ‘life’ has a way of changing our perceptions, efforts and even our paths, as we leave the safe havens of our parents and begin to experience the world and all it has to offer on our own. As young people, many have ‘heard’ about the pit falls of life but breeze through it in a bold manner, believing that ‘it’ won’t happen to me. The ‘it’ in this case being all the negatives that could change our lives in a moment. ‘I’ won’t get pregnant, ‘I’ll’ try drugs, but ‘I’ won’t become strung out, ‘I’ can have a drink, but ‘I’ won’t become an alcoholic. But what happens if you do? 

Last week we were all introduced to Ted Williams, or maybe you know him as ‘the homeless guy from Columbus, Ohio’ or ‘the man with the golden voice’, either way, you couldn’t turn on any form of media and not hear of Ted Williams. His story is the same as many of ours, he went to college, followed his dream, landed a position and then….life happened.

I learned of this story from my sister when it first went viral, she was so enthusiastic when she was telling me to look it up. I think her excitement steamed partly from her extensive opportunities to witness my challenges, disappointments and successes during my efforts to ‘make it’ in the communications field, a field that is more than challenging, and secondly because the story simply offered us the transparency to witness that God is a God of second chances, and it touched us all in some way, especially anyone that has unrecognized dreams.

I f you didn’t see the video, take a look, I attached it, but if you did see the video, you’ll remember that Mr. Williams was holding a tattered, cardboard sign, but you may not have noticed what was written on the sign, it read: 

“I have a God given gift of voice. I am an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. PLEASE any help will be gratefully appreciated I thank you and God bless you/HAPPY HOLIDAYS”

I find it ironic that during the ‘holiday season’ Mr. Williams was gifted again, with a gift he already possessed. He spoke pretty boldly with his first statement, but I think it’s cool that he could, I mean, how many people do you know that even know what their ‘God given gift’ is? Do you know what yours is?

When people started commenting on the video on different social sites, the comments that bothered me the most, where the ones that read like ‘…yeah he’s got a nice voice, BUT I hope he don’t slip back into his old lifestyle…’, 

I wanted to scream STOP IT!, CAN’T YOU BE HAPPY FOR SOMEONE JUST FOR A MOMENT?

All in all, Ted Williams now serves as a poster child for just how quick your life can be changed. He’s showing us how people that would have never even dropped a dollar into his tin can and would have viewed him as a social misfit are now willing to write hefty checks, provide position and housing for him, because his ‘God given gift’ cannot be denied. “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men” (Prov. 18:16). 

f you don’t know what your ‘gift’ is, think of the thing that nags at you, the thing that even though it may not have manifested YET, you still desire it. It’s the thing that you do effortlessly and leaves others in aww of how you did it. The point of this blog, is simply to remind you that in order to ‘make it’, use your gifts. 

Congratulations Ted Williams, do your thing!

So tell us, what is your gift?

Until next time, 

Write On
Stacy Stewart