Take Your Gift Off the Shelf
By Jesse Yi-Gray, Director of Music & Experience
When I was six years old, my life had a very steady routine. Monday through Friday, every day held the same basic schedule. I woke up, ate breakfast, got dressed, then headed over to my best friend’s house. We would have an hour to play and hang out together. Then his mom would sit me down at their piano for an hour-long lesson. The bus would pick us up to go to our PM kindergarten, and then home for the night.
The piano lessons weren’t flashy. I wasn’t learning sonatas or concertos like the young prodigies you may run across on Facebook or YouTube, but I was certainly progressing quickly for a kid my age. Some called me lucky; some called me gifted. Most called me a nerd, but I let it slide.
Then my family moved a state over, from California to Nevada. My piano lessons, my passion to study, even my interest. Suddenly gone. Fully and completely shelved. Out of sight, out of mind.
As other skills developed over the next four years, other passions ignited and fizzled. Yet there was always one constant: our living room piano. Maybe I’d sit once in a while and clunk out a tune I heard at church or a Silly Song from VeggieTales that got stuck in my head, but there was never a desire to lean in more. That gift of music I had shelved stayed dormant. My mom would beg for me to play, my children’s church would desperately ask for worship help, but those invitations were never enough to make me take the gift off the shelf.
I didn’t know it at the time, but something was coming that would change the direction of my life entirely. Something that would force me to confront that shelf where my gift was placed.
In fourth grade, I was doing a simple trampoline front flip. But this time, I landed on my neck. Three twisted vertebrae, two slipped disks, and lifelong chronic pain. And I was left with the realization that I would never again be a gymnast.
At that point, being a gymnast was just about all I wanted to do. It was my escape from home, a way to keep me healthy and working out, a sense of purpose suddenly gone. I had no backup plans or life directions. I was angry that a loving God would let this happen to a kid, refusing to believe in that God. In my mind, my life was over. Purposeless, loveless, and alone.
But the pit of despair led me back to my metaphorical shelf, that living room piano.
With nothing else to do, I spent hours in front of my piano. Learning and relearning. Building technique. Memorizing. Making things my own. While learning to live with the pain of recovery, and discovering what life looked like after this massive change, God met me. He showed me love and gave me drive, allowing me to find comfort and purpose in the cultivation and stewardship of this reawakened gift he had given me.
And that time taking the gift off the shelf proved to be worth it. I began digging into music at school, spending valuable time with my music teachers who pushed me. They gave me more musical instruments to learn, knowing that the gift that God had given me years ago was one I was going to take seriously. My youth pastor, even knowing that I was pushing God away, gave me a space to use my gift for others by volunteering me for worship. I found myself in a situation where the gift was just about the only thing I could turn to, and God gave me a time, place, and reason to use it. For Him, for others, and for me too.
So, what are your “I used to do that” gifts? And what would it look like for you to get your gift off the shelf?
Maybe you were a teacher or coach, spending years investing in the next generation, until your career took you elsewhere. Now could be the best time to get connected in our Kids and Youth Ministries.
Maybe you were the person who opened your home. Birthdays or brunches or barbecues. But it stopped because life got in the way. That gift of hospitality is something you can use again here on our Greeter Team, helping the people who walk in our doors feel welcome and invited.
Maybe you were like me, being in choirs or bands or orchestras, then giving it up when everything became too busy. Maybe then, there’s a pull to think about worship here at Chapel Hill.
And maybe your gift isn’t one that fits neatly into a category like this. That’s okay, too. There are places for your gifts to impact and serve those around you. Because God has a way of using every skill, every passion, every gift for good.
Your gift didn’t disappear. You just haven’t had a place to use it lately.
You didn’t lose it. You wrapped it. Shelved it.
And maybe it’s time to get your gift off the shelf.
Jesse