(Photo of me at Muir Woods, California Spring 2016)

Romans 12: 6-8…We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance  with your faith, if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. 

In this series we’ve gone through the 5 senses God provided to experience this mortal life. There are indeed unique extra senses to which we owe our personalities, individual gifts and talents, and all the many ways we go about serving God’s purposes. These are the things we often describe as “just comes natural to us.”

An example of this in my life was 10 year old me taking drum lessons from a twenty-something pro that my dad arranged. For what felt like forever, all he’d let me do was play rudiments on the snare drum. I liked paradiddles, but the rest was terribly boring. All signs pointed to me giving that up in pretty short order. Then one evening his girlfriend stopped by while we were busy paradiddling and whatnot, and he left the room. There before me was the entire drum kit at my disposal. I had no permission to play it, but I did anyway, and I started emulating all the things Peter Criss was doing on my KISS records. For a kid with no experience except how to do a pretty slow paradiddle on the snare, I sounded pretty decent. Enough so that my long haired, super cool, teacher, was shocked as he stood in the doorway gawking at me. It just came natural to me.

How was I to know that God had no plans to make me like Peter Criss, as in my dreams? Instead, he’d use that God-provided natural instinct for his own benefit for a span of 20 something years in two different cities. I had a lot of fun and experiences on my own time, too, but the sum total of that gift turned out to be – in service to him. Quite an honor it has been.

That’s just one of my unique gifts or extra senses. There are others, as with your own, too, and the more I’ve aged the more aware of these things I have become. All of them are in use and service to God’s will and purposes.

I sincerely pray that those who’ve read this series or will in the future, seek to express their own gratitude for the wonders and grace God provides in their lives.

Onward towards the Kingdom!

Gary Abernathy