Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:7-11

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

I am a prodigal by all accounts. I was raised in a house that taught me to be “open minded� until my grandparents convinced my mom and dad that I should go to church. Soon after this conversation I began attending Sunday school and I remember liking God and enjoying the “stories� of Jesus that our teacher shared with us each week.
I didn’t understand salvation or forgiveness or even sin for that matter, but I liked that He could do magic (water into wine, walking on water, etc.) and that He loved me.

Then, my mom died.

At that point I decided I wanted nothing to do with this “loving God� who would take the light of my world away from me, similar to those feelings and events that lead C.S. Lewis to become an Atheist in his earlier days (see CS Lewis’ autobiography Surprised By Joy for more early childhood details on what formed his atheism). Instead of turning to God for support, I turned my back on Him and refused to believe in something that would be so cruel and unfair.

I instead made friends within the world of skateboarding. This was around 1983 or 1984 and skateboarding was beginning to become the cultural norm that it is today. Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi were on top, most of the graphics were of skulls or some other morbid thing, the music that was deemed “acceptable� in the scene was either thrash, punk or hardcore, and there were very few vocal Christians that were involved with the scene at the time. That was fine with me. Christians were ignorant and gullible as far as I was concerned.

Skateboarding was able to keep me alive and sober (by the grace of God) throughout my late high school and college years. Instead of going to the high school keggers or frat parties, I would ride my skateboard.
But something was missing. In the interest of time I won’t bore you with the details, but I came to a point in my life where I would either swallow my pride and accept God into my heart or I was going to be completely lost to sin and most likely die. I chose Him and took my leap of faith to finally come home from my prodigious journey.

Five years later and I am still here (thanks be to God).

As soon as I accepted Christ I began reading the New Testament and got involved in a Bible study. I devoured the Word! I was on fire for God and everything started to make sense! Then came the section I quoted earlier from 1Corinthians 12. I hit a wall for about a month. I could not think of a single spiritual gift that I possessed.
The only things I had really been “gifted� with up until that point was my ability and love for skating. I talked to my pastor and he suggested I not worry and pray for discernment and guidance as to where my spiritual gifts were.
I put that verse in the “review at a later date� file in my brain and continued reading and learning about God and growing in my walk with Him. I was still hooked into the skateboard world, but now, as a Christian, I would read interviews in magazines of professionals talking about their faith in Jesus Christ and started to dig deeper to find the Christians in the extreme sports world.

Steelroots was the first ministry I found (see the interview with Ben Cerullo from an earlier edition). I then found Louis Pulau and Stephen Baldwin’s Livin’ It organization. Both of those opened a floodgate of information on pros and ministries that were hooked into the world of skateboarding that I loved so much. I learned of companies like Untitled Skateboards and heard about Christian skaters traveling the world putting on demos while preaching the Good News. Then I found churches that have skateboard specific ministries and are building skate ramps and street courses to reach the youth in their areas.

I had never thought my love for skating would be a useful tool for God, but He has guided me to start working on a skate ministry/outreach in my community.
Last month, after being prompted by a fellow Christian to do so, I flew out to California to visit the Action Sports Retailer trade show to start making contacts with some of the Christian skateboard and Christian clothing company representatives and network like crazy. I then visited a church in Huntington Beach to get some advice and guidance from the pastors to see how they do their skate ministry, and have been in conversation with some of the very vocal Christian pros asking for suggestions and recommendations on how to proceed at this point. It has been a pretty remarkable experience and God has been leading the whole thing.

The point of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 is this: God has given each of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior certain gifts. For some it is the gift of preaching, others it’s the ability to be involved in international mission work. Some of us are given the gift of music to lead a worship service; others make great counselors and mentors.
God gave me a love and passion for skateboarding, even before I knew Him. And He is beginning to use it to build a ministry in our area. I don’t know how big the ministry will become or if anything will come of it at all, but God has planted the seeds for His word and will to be expressed through my love of skateboarding.

So to those of you who have not yet discovered your “Spiritual Gifts�, don’t worry about it.
All you have to do is be faithful to God and He will make your path clear and provide you with the gifts necessary to fulfill His glory! God might not have a plan for your special skill today, but it will manifest sooner or later.

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