I had no marketable skills.
Yep, when I was pursuing full-time missions, that’s what a personnel representative said from what would become my sending organization.
I couldn’t help it if I was a Liberal Arts major in college — I loved history, languages and library science. Those were things I was drawn to. Nobody told me I’d really need more to be employable — even by a mission board!
Before you think I’m whining, I’m not. I knew that a history degree without a teaching certificate wouldn’t take me far, but I just really didn’t want to teach. However, I did know one thing they didn’t seem to:
God had called me to missions.
Knowing that, I figured he would work out the rest of the plan. He did not disappoint.
So, what does God do with those “less than marketable skills” some of us have? That said, what does he do with the “highly marketable” ones, like my engineering husband had?
Nothing is lost in God’s economy.
Just as the Spirit gives gifts for use in his Kingdom, so does the Lord take the “works of our hands” or our skills and talents and opens opportunities through them to build bridges to relationship and the gospel.
For my engineer and carpenter husband, there were countless opportunities to speak truth while explaining a structural design problem or while building a table or special gift for a local friend. Putting on his “engineer cap” when entering a closed country helped to avoid difficult questions.
For the Liberal Arts major, my proficiency in French and later in Arabic helped me to work in countries and at tasks where language was the most important asset. I could lead Bible studies and disciple others in either language. God even used my minor in Library Science to organize libraries at the Beirut Baptist School and my sons’ school in Egypt.
Whether we’re “marketable” in the eyes of the world or not, when we offered all to him, God takes our loaves and fishes of talents and training and multiplies them to his glory. That’s the key — offering them to him and his service.
What are your gifts, talents, training, and skills? Place all at his disposal and be ready for him to turn them into a wonderful bridge to draw others to Christ. Even with such seemingly small resources, God’s economy is always the richest.
Grace and Peace