The Sunday Mail
Priscillah Bitirinyu ; University of Zimbabwe
Gifts are given to us without having done anything (at least not intentionally) to earn them. Perhaps that is the best thing about a gift to most people. It is free and we all know the delight of receiving something for free I suppose. We often keep it safe and do not use it that often. Sometimes we place it somewhere where we can see it and admire it, remembering fondly the person who gave us that gift. This is the case with gifts that we are given by our fellow-men but God-given gifts ought to be treated in the direct opposite manner.
A gift is a natural endowment and gifts differ from person to person. However, each person has one or more gifts that they have in order for them to develop a purpose around that gift. It is a natural ability that a person is born with. While most people have generally accepted the stereotype that a gift should be artistic or intellectual, I think it can be anything within a person that can yield harmlessly.
There is a relationship between the gifts that a person has and that person’s raison d’etre(reason to be). A person’s purpose may propel them to utilize their gift in a manner that is best suited to the purpose or their gift may propel them to excel in utilizing the gift hence giving them a purpose. Whatever the case may be, life without purpose is meaningless and likely to be excruciating.
The most important characteristic of a gift is its capacity to yield hence the need for it to be utilised and refined over time. When a gift is utilised, it yields both to the society and to the endowed individual. A musician’s gift soothes the soul, a writer’s gift flirts with the mind, an engineer’s gift takes away the burden of extra work.
All the while this satisfies the holder’s need for purpose and accomplishment. In my opinion, the best way to cope with this complex life is to know your gift and how best you can use it to benefit yourself and the rest of the world.
The parable of the talents makes practical sense. The worker who had one talent buried it in a napkin and failed to utilise it thereby having it confiscated from him and himself punished for his foolishness. When a gift is under-utilised, its quality wanes and eventually its holder experiences no direct benefit from it except to once in a while use it to come out of a negative situation.
Let us take Zimbabwe as an individual. She is endowed with many gifts. She is beautiful, richly endowed with minerals, has the perfect weather for comfort, tourism and agriculture. Moreover, her people have possibly the sharpest minds in the continent. Yet, look at her now. She is poor and her people are disgruntled, depressed and perpetually dissatisfied. For one reason or another, these gifts have not been utilised effectively hence the nation’s purpose to have national pride and happiness for all its citizens has been lost.
This analogy can illustrate what it can be like when an individual fails to utilise his or her gifts effectively.
Another example is that of nepotism. While the streets are packed with individuals skilled and gifted enough to bring out useful ideas as well as effectively solve problems in key organisations, these gifts are not being utilised and people opt to employ their relatives instead. Eventually, these organisations’ success dwindles due to poor management by ill qualified people.
A gift alone is no use as attested by the state of our richly endowed nation. A gift that is put to effective and efficient use is a true gift. In my opinion, there are a few pillars that are required for a gift to be fully utilised.
Character
As I see it, the most important pillar is character. Character are the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. One’s character should complement their gifts.
Exhibit A
An intellectually gifted student naturally features in the top ten every term with little study. He is notorious in school and his intellectual ability makes his friends venerate him. As his final exams approach he takes the veneration too seriously and gets expelled from school. He is unaware that he was not paying school fees at this school but his parents, being poor, managed to convince the school principal when he started, illustrating how gifted he is and how much potential he has, to give him free education. When he is expelled, he has nowhere to go because his parents cannot afford to send him to another school.
He tries to wait another year but he loses both parents and has to work for a living. When he gets his first job as a warehouse assistant, he quickly adapts and is given the responsibility of supervisor within a year. Having gotten a pay raise, he impregnates his girlfriend.
His salary is hardly sufficient for three. Eventually he lives a life with no financial security and constant trouble.
When one is gifted they ought to develop a character that makes them realise the full benefits of having that gift. Some of the core elements of character include discipline, honesty, integrity, patience, confidence, consistency and hard work.
Support
While we may be able to cope as individuals we cannot supply ourselves with all the things that we need in order to bring out the best in us. Somebody has to take us closer to our dreams and appreciate them when we achieve them.
Exhibit B
Paida is 18 and comes from a middle class family. While they may not be poor, they could definitely use extra cash as the family has eight children. Five of whom are in school. Paida is the first and has a lot of responsibilities, the greatest of which is setting an example for her four younger sisters. Paida plays for a local cricket club as she waits for her results. She is one of the key players. However, she does not make it to all of the games because her parents are extremely strict. Moreover, they think she is setting a bad example to her younger sisters as ladies ought to be getting ready for marriage rather than playing sport.
One day an international club official calls her after a match to tell her that he would like her to try out for an English team. She is overjoyed and agrees. When she tells her parents their reaction is unlike hers and much like she expected. When the day of the trials arrives she tries to sneak out but her mother catches her at it and punishes her very severely. The most important and influential people in her life do not support her so she cannot utilise her gift effectively.
When one is gifted they need positive support.
Health
Exhibit C
Tino is a straight A student. She aspires to be a neurosurgeon and is now doing her ‘A’ levels. During her vacation something bad happened to her but she did not tell a soul. While out with a group of friends, two boys forced themselves onto her. Given that she was not supposed to have been out in the first place, she resorts to keeping it to herself. Naturally, her self-esteem drops. She tries to stay strong and thinks she will make it through ‘A’ level but the stress eats her from inside. Moreover, she has to fake her grades every term and living with a secret does not make her situation any better. She sits for her exams and manages to scrape three points much to the disappointment of her parents. She is emotionally scarred and does not know how to deal with her pain.
She refuses to re-sit for her ‘A’ levels and takes the road of alcoholism and drug abuse instead.
Health in all its forms is crucial for success.
The final and most important pillar is to acknowledge the source of that gift. That source is The Lord who created you. Once one realises the gravity of this fact they naturally push themselves to work as hard and effectively as possible.
To me, the most important thing about a gift is that it should, in its own capacity, make the world a better place. By so doing, we gain the ultimate satisfaction of doing what God created us to do.
Students,
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