By Allan Kelsey

Keep using the gift God gave you…let it grow, as a small flame grows into a fire. 2 Timothy 1:6

I have always had a love affair with water. My mother has a photograph of me crawling in diapers on the beach towards the water…before I could even walk! I learned how to swim at a young age because swimming came very naturally to me. As I grew, I spent more and more time in the pool with swimming teachers and coaches getting better and faster with time and practice. Then in my mid-teens, my coach pulled me aside one day and said, “Allan, you have the ability to be a world-class swimmer, to be ranked in the top 20 in the world. The questions you have to answer are: Will you believe it? And will you do something about it?”

I believed him, and I chose to do something about it. I began working out more frequently and with more focus. I tried even harder to become a more competitive swimmer. However, in spite of all my efforts, my races didn’t get any faster and my times didn’t improve. So I discussed the matter with my coach, and he advised me to get a full physical assessment to help determine the optimal training regimen for me. 

Two weeks later, I spent a full day at a sports physician’s training complex getting poked and prodded, running on a treadmill and getting a complete examination. They tested my lung capacity, my blood, my VO2 max and more. At the end of the day, I lay exhausted on their exam table as the tests were winding down. But then the doctor asked me to flip over onto my stomach for one last test. He went to the closet and returned with a needle the length of a pencil and jammed it into my muscle. I screamed with surprise and pain, only to have him say that the procedure was now halfway complete. He now had to remove the needle and hopefully keep a specimen of my muscle in the needle for analysis. To my deep gratitude, he successfully removed some of my muscle and didn’t have to try again.

The doctor told me that muscle is made of fast-twitch and slow-twitch fiber and knowing which kind I had could point me towards reaching my ideal performance. As it turned out, I have fast-twitch muscle fiber, which means I’m made to sprint. I’m not made for long-distance events; slow-twitch muscle fibers do better at those. With this new information, I worked with my doctor and coach to rebuild my workouts. This time, we took into consideration how God made me and equipped me.

Within a month of implementing these new workouts, my times began dropping, and I began placing in my competitions. Soon, I was starting to win events, and not too long after that, I began winning with regularity. I was amazed at the results, especially because I wasn’t working out any harder than before!

It turns out that paying attention to who I am and how God made me has a tremendous impact on what I can accomplish. By allowing how I have been equipped by God to impact what I do, I was able to enjoy performing as a world-class swimmer.

I believe the same thing is true for everyone. Your most effective contribution doesn’t come from “trying harder,” rather it comes from aligning yourself with what God has equipped you to do and focusing your efforts there. I tried hard to be a well-rounded swimmer, but no matter how hard I worked, I was mediocre at best. I needed to focus on my areas of strength.

James 2:14–17 says, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” It seems quite apparent from God’s perspective that it’s necessary for me to do something with what I believe. But what?

Your identity—who God made you to be and the gifts He placed inside of you—points to your destiny. Who you are and what you are made of are strong clues to your specific areas of greatest contribution. It was true for me. When I discovered where I was gifted by God—how He made me—and began to focus on that, my effectiveness and productivity shot through the roof! Because I acted on the gifts God gave me, He allowed me to receive a scholarship that led me from my home country of South Africa to the United States where I am now walking out His destiny for my life.

I think it’s evident that God has purposefully instilled in you the strengths and qualities you need to accomplish your greatest contributions in life. Discovering them and acting on them empowers and equips you to leave a remarkable and completely unique impact on the world around you. It starts with discovering how God made you and equipped you.

Brick by brick, life by life, God is creating a kingdom, a “spiritual temple” (1 Peter 2:5). He entrusted you with a key task in the project. Examine your tools, and discover it. Your ability unveils your destiny.
~ Max Lucado

Memory Verse

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole. Ephesians 4:11–13