Not Every Gift Is Your Destination

Welcome to this new week. I trust yesterday helped you recalibrate the week with a fresh direction.

I asked AI to help me generate this image for this newsletter—me as a doctor and me as a podcaster, side by side. Two very different expressions, but still one me. And I think it perfectly captures the heart of this newsletter…

Have you ever found yourself gifted in so many things that you are no longer quite sure what you should be doing?

You can write.

You can teach.

You can lead.

You have your career.

You have those ideas that keep coming back.

And then there is that other thing that people keep telling you that you are really good at.

Sometimes having many gifts can feel exciting.

Other times, it can leave you wondering:

“Am I multitalented or am I simply multidistracted?”

This week on Reframe Her Worth, I had such a beautiful conversation with Brenda Unu, a multipassionate woman—an architect, writer, women’s coach and book consultant.

And she said something that is worth reflecting on:

“It’s one calling. It’s one purpose. It’s just one me, but several expressions of me.”

Sometimes we look at the different parts of ourselves and assume they must be competing with one another and feel the need to pick one and discard the others.

But what if they are not competing?

I could relate to this.

There was a time I wondered what being a doctor had to do with podcasting.

They seemed like two completely different things.

Until I realised that medicine had actually been training me for podcasting.

As a doctor, I have had to learn how to take complicated medical information and explain it in a way that someone else can understand.

And here I am today, doing something similar with the podcast—taking scriptural truths and relating them to our everyday lives.

Sometimes what looks unrelated to where God is taking you has actually been preparing you for it.

But there was another part of the conversation that is worth reflecting on as well.

We talked about Joseph. Joseph had the gift of interpreting dreams.

That gift opened the door that eventually brought him before Pharaoh.

But Joseph didn’t become Pharaoh’s chief dream interpreter.

The gift opened the door, but the gift wasn’t the destination.

And I wonder how often we miss this.

We discover something we are good at.

People affirm it.

Doors begin to open through it.

And because it is working, we assume:

This must be where I am supposed to camp.

But perhaps not every gift is meant to become the centre of your life.

Not every gift is meant for you to build a brand around or camp on. Some gifts are simply meant to open doors.

Brenda described how writing did this in her own life.

Writing came back to her during a difficult season when she was out of work. It helped her rediscover herself. It built her confidence. It opened significant doors.

And for a while, she built around it.

But in her words:

“That’s not the camp… it’s just a means to an end. It’s not the end.”

And perhaps there is a question here for you and me:

Have I made a destination out of something God intended to be a door?

Maybe that gift was meant to introduce you to certain people.

Maybe it was meant to restore something in you.

Or maybe it was meant to carry you through a particular season.

Just because you can write does not mean you must author books. Having a beautiful singing voice does not mean you must be in the choir, and being good at encouraging people does not mean you should become a coach.

Sometimes we discover a gift and immediately start trying to give it a title, a platform or a destination. But being gifted at something does not automatically tell you what place that gift should occupy in your life.

And this is why our identity cannot be built around our gifts.

Because gifts may move from the foreground to the background.

Assignments can change.

Titles can change.

Careers can change.

Platforms can change.

But there is an identity that remains.

Brenda said something else during our conversation that I loved. Before architect, before writer, before wife or mother, she sees herself first as:

A child of God.

Because that is the identity that cannot be taken away.

Dearest sister , your gifts are beautiful.

Steward them.

Develop them.

Use them.

But don’t let them tell you who you are.

So perhaps this week, instead of asking only:

“What am I good at?”

Maybe there are a few more questions to ask:

“Lord, what did You give me this gift for?”

“What are You asking me to lead with in this season?”

“Is this a destination, or is this a door?”

And perhaps most importantly:

“If everything I do was stripped away, would I still know who I am?”

You are more than what you do. Yes you are extremely talented but at your core, you are His!

Keep walking. Keep believing. Keep becoming the amazing woman God already sees.

Yours in walking and becoming,

Teim❤️

Host: Reframe Her Worth