what's right with you?

On the suggestion of my older younger brother, Raj, in a continued effort to answer, "what should I do with my life?" I purchased StrengthsFinder 2.0 tonight. My dear friend Shauna has long extolled the virtues of StrengthsFinder, so I knew it was worth checking out and figured it would prove somewhat more useful to my life than the suggested move to New Jersey.

I fully intended to share with you lovely people my top 5 strengths, but alas my access code to take the online test seems to have been misprinted or hijacked despite the fact that the packet in the back of the book was unopened. I'm quite disappointed about that. So now I wait to see if the website's Help people are able to fully live up to their name; I hope so.

In the meantime, I will share with you what I was able to learn from StrengthsFinder 2.0 tonight. Well, I'll let author Tom Rath explain:

In 1998, I began working with a team of Gallup scientists led by the late Father of Strengths Psychology, Donald O. Clifton. Our goal was to start a global conversation about what's right with people.

We were tired of living in a world that revolved around fixing our weaknesses. Society's relentless focus on people's shortcomings had turned into a global obsession. What's more, we had discovered that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies.

(Emphasis added.)

I can't help but feel like this is somewhat how my God looks at me. Sometimes as humans we tend to focus too much on the failed, dark, ugly parts of ourselves, forgetting the lens through which God sees us. Sure He knows the yucky parts of us more intimately than even we do, but He also remembers more readily the blood that washes us white as snow. He remembers the strengths that He set in our hearts.

He remembers the way He can fill in the cracks of our humanity and call the weakest of the weak hiding in a cave to lead Israel's army (Gideon), or an old childless man to be the father of many nations (Abraham), or the runt of a family to slay a giant and become king and be a man after God's own heart despite adultery and murder (David), or a bratty doted-upon son to save from famine the brothers that sold him into slavery (Joseph), or a young orphan girl to become queen that she might risk her own life by entering a cranky king's chamber uninvited to save her people (Esther), or a man who would 3 times in one night deny his friend and teacher out of fear to become the rock on which Christ would build his church (Peter), or a persecutor of Christians to become one of the most important voices in the early church whose epistles we still look to for guidance (Paul), or a tax collector choosing Rome over his people to be His friend (Zacchaeus). I could go on, but I think you get the point.

I look forward to being able to share with you the results of the StrengthsFinder assessment. And even just from the little I've read so far, I encourage you to consider picking up a copy and discovering your strengths. Imagine what could happen in this world if we looked toward the potential God has placed in us & those around us rather than focused on ours & their shortcomings. Maybe we really could cause mountains to move (Matthew 17:20, NIV) and mulberry trees to be planted in the sea (Luke 17:6, NIV)! (Not of our own accord of course, but by God moving in us.) I don't know about you, but I really want to be a mover of mountains and to live out all that God has in store for me.