Finding Your Superpower
Not too long ago I was staying at my camp at Cedar Island. It was summer and I was busy inside with supper and other things. I had an outside light on the porch and it was well after sunset when I went outside. I was amazed at the insect life that had come to enjoy the light. Now we have bugs in New Bern and Cove City but nothing like Cedar Island. There were flying bugs, crawling bugs, black ones with big horns, green ones with big eyes and in every size from tiny to XXXXL. It made me wonder why they were so different. If I was in charge of creation I would have made two or three flying bugs and a couple of crawlers and that would have been enough. I would not have made skeeters, ticks, red bugs, yellow flies or green heads.
All those bugs point to an amazing fact. God loves variety! Countless species and plants cover our world and even humans come in so many shapes sizes and colors that it would be a nightmare to keep one of each in stock if you were a retailer. We use the term “creative genius” but when it comes to God it is just beyond description. So if we were created by such a creative genius then what are we? Who are we and why are we here? It just stands to reason that we just have to be absolutely awesome. A creative genius would never be satisfied with creating anything normal or average.
It doesn’t make any sense that we spend so much of our energy trying to normal and average. How did it happen? Or maybe when did it happen would be a better question. Back in the 1960s NASA was spending money trying to win the space race and be the first to land on the moon. They realized they needed to think “out of the box” to do something that had never been done. After forming think tank groups they realized it would be helpful if they had a way to find out of the box thinkers. Another name would be the creative geniuses.
With money flowing they found an independent research firm that created a test for creative genius. The test was simple and easy to give and the results were excellent. Matter of fact it worked so well that the researchers said how about we give this test to kids. The test was given to 1600 five year old kids scattered across the country. Now what do you think the percentage to test as creative genius was? 10%? 20%? If you have a five year old or you remember being 5 it probably won’t surprise you to know 98% tested to be creative geniuses. 98%! Five year old kids don’t just think out of the box they have no box. Talk to them and listen. They want to be mermaid veterinarians and spend weekends in space.
Finding so much creativity energized the researchers to repeat the test in 5 years. Evidently a lot of change takes place between 5 and 10 because the percentage to test creative genius dropped to 30%! Wow, what happened? They haven’t done anything but go to school and play and they dropped 68%. Researchers were not excited but went forward with another test at age 15. Now how creative are teenagers? Once again a huge drop in creative genius to only 12%. Researchers were too discouraged to continue testing the group but since then the test has been given to over 1 million adults. So how creative are people like you and me? Adults test at 2% in the creative genius category. From 98% to 2%! Why?
Other research has proven that by age 5 your personality has fully developed and you are who you are going to be. While you were obviously created by a creative genius to be a creative genius the world doesn’t like it. The world wants conformity. Kind of a huge pressure of collective thought that comes from us wanting others to be like us. We want to be able to judge so we want all apples and no oranges. If we are the same then we measure ourselves and do better than others or have more and feel better about our accomplishments. We want credit for achievement. We want to know what average is so we can have others see how far above average we are. It’s just the way the world works.
The question is what are we giving up when we depart from what we made to be? If you look at my workbench or tool box you will see what looks like hundreds of tools. Some are everyday tools and some are speciality tools for my profession. Many are handmade just to do one special job that nothing else can do. Many of these tools are an absolute necessity for me to do my work. Many were made out of the best quality materials and ground and polished to exactly the right shape. Then they were hardened at 1500 degrees and drawn at 500 degrees to be tough and durable. They are important necessary and valuable to me but when I die most will be discarded as trash. Without the craftsman the tools have no purpose, no value, no future.
We should know that if we were created different it has to be for a reason. It seems obvious we were made for different purposes or jobs. Just like tools if you try to do something you were never designed to do you probably won’t have a good outcome. So are there things I can’t do? Well basically yes. Apostle Paul said for me nothing is off limits but a lot of things are not profitable. We have all seen it and tried it more than once. The basketball player that is too short or the horse jockey that is too big. The boy that struggled to pass basic math might not be the best one to send to the The School of Math And Science. A mule will never win the Kentucky Derby!
But what about “Be all you can be” or “you never fail till you quit” or “shoot for the moon”? Most of us grew up in a world that wanted you to work on your weak points. We got a report card and the next grading period would be focused on the low grade to pull it up to average. Even if this was a subject that held no interest and would never be used. Researchers have prover that people had several time more growth if the spend the available time working on the strong subjects. (Whew! Wish I had that research to show Mama when I flunked French I in 9th grade!) The facts and the Bible agree that you need to invest time in doing an inventory on your abilities.
Paul tells us in Romans 12 that we should present the work of our bodies as a living sacrifice. It kind of scary to think about doing Christian service. Giving ourselves over to God scares us because we think God wants to change us. He want to make us something different, something we were never meant to be. It’s actually the opposite.
Verse 2 says That the renewing of our mind will put us in touch with the perfect will of God. Renewing, meaning making our mind like it was. Remember you were to be a creative genius? It doesn’t say replacing your mind or become something you were never made to be. Renewing is restoring.
Verse 3 says to every person not to think of yourself more highly than you should ( who popped in your mind?). But to think soberly with sound judgement of yourself. Just as bad and sometimes worse is the habit of false humility. How many times have you stopped short and not done something that was needed because you sold yourself short and said “I’m not good enough.” Don’t ever talk bad about yourself. When you work for God have confidence. Would you want your surgeon to come in and say he really wasn’t very good? I learned from an Olympic shooting coach that you start to believe what you tell yourself. You should be reminding yourself that you are awesomely created by a creative genius who is interested in everything you do! Besides there will always be someone willing to take the job of making you humble.
Verse 4 and 5 reminds us just as the body has many members with different functions the body of Christ (us) has many members with different functions. It is okay to be different and even weird if you were made that way! It was for a reason.
The rest of chapter 12 names a long list of spiritual gifts that each of us have been
given in different proportions and gives us the instruction “to exercise them accordingly”.
So what’s the point or as I ask my students “what did you learn?”
1. I am designed by God to be different for a reason.
2. I have gifts (superpowers) given by God so I can do certain things better than others.
3. I have to make an honest frank assessment of what I can and cannot do.
4. If I focus my efforts on being what I was created to be instead of what the world wants me to be I will be the most effective and best version of myself.
5. While I was created with certain gifts it is completely up to me how or if I use them.
Timothy P. Whealton