So gifted and talented
Like a proud parent, God especially enjoys watching you use the talents and abilities he has given you. God intentionally gifted us differently for his enjoyment. He has made some to be athletic and some to be analytical. You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All these abilities can bring a smile to God's face. The Bible says, “He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do.” 22
You don't bring glory or pleasure to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring enjoyment by being you. Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God's wisdom and sovereignty in creating you. God says, “You have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a potter. The clay doesn't ask, ‘Why did you make me this way?’” 23
In the film Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God's pleasure.” Later he says, “To give up running would be to hold him in contempt.” There are no unspiritual abilities, just misused ones. Start using yours for God's pleasure.
(Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2002, pp. 74-75.)
Endnotes:
22 Psalm 22:15 (Msg)
23Isaiah 45:9 (CEV)
To say that you must use the gifts and talents that God has given you or else you are holding God in “contempt” is a great lie. Though God has gifted us differently, we must remember that our gifts have been given to us for the for the “common good” (1 Cor 12:4-11, see especially v. 7). It may therefore be right and proper for us to refrain from using those gifts for the sake of others.
Even though you might be a consummate pianist, able to play through the regular repertoire with your eyes shut, you might choose to not play to allow someone else the chance to serve in that capacity. Or you might devote your time instead to training others in how to play so that there will be more pianists available to serve the church if the time ever comes when you have to find a replacement for yourself. Even though you might have a real gift for medicine, you might choose to give up your career as a doctor to go and teach the word to Bible college students in Kathmandu. Even though you might have a gift with words and you have the potential one day to become the next winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, you might choose to give all of that up in order to devote your time to caring for your husband and children.
This is not holding God in contempt. This is serving his commmunity in love. God has given us many gifts but sometimes we should abstain from using them.