You have mad skills. Your skills are so mad that your tech peers cannot comprehend the level at which you perform your craft. You are in a league all your own. Others marvel.
Do you know anyone like that? Perhaps you see yourself as someone who has that extra measure of skill and talent when it comes to all things technical. All of us who serve in a technical capacity within our local churches are skilled to varying degrees. Some are more skilled than others, but we are all skilled. How much confidence should we put into our own skills? How should we approach using and sharing these skills?
The real deal
From where does your skill come? Most of us could list the trade school we attended, name a degree as the source or would say that we've come from the school of “hard knocks.” We may think of all the experiences we've gathered over many years that have moved us to the skill level we currently enjoy -- and you would be partially right, but only partially.
While reading a few weeks ago I came across a couple of men in the story of the Exodus who were skilled craftsmen and it struck me what was written about their skill. Their names were Bezalel and Oholiab. They were described as skilled and very intelligent men. But more specifically they were men, “In whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary.” The very next verse similarly states about them and other craftsmen as those “in whose mind the Lord had put skill.”
Skill and intelligence come from God alone. You have no place to stand in boasting about it, however much you have.
I get the impression that these men were not skilled one day and then all of a sudden were the next. They had probably spent time like the rest of us learning and honing a skill, but the difference was that it came a bit faster and easier for them than it did for others. Why? God placed the skill and intelligence in them. They still worked and practiced at it, but it's God who produces it.
That's the principle.
Skill and intelligence come from God alone. You have no place to stand in boasting about it, however much you have. Naturally then, this should produce in us a spirit of humility, thanksgiving and wonder that God could or would do this in us. I think for these men it did. We have recorded next that their “heart stirred [them] up to come to do the work.”
It was and is God who allows you the ability to comprehend, gain intelligence and grow in skill. Have you considered this? Does this then produce a spirit of humility and gratitude?
I wonder if you, being a skilled craftsman, have ever considered it? The whole of your work, experience, or schooling was only your small part to play. It was and is God who allows you the ability to comprehend, gain intelligence and grow in skill. Have you considered this? Does this then produce a spirit of humility and gratitude? Does it produce a sense of wonder and awe?
A challenge for you
Let's start this week with this in mind. The next time someone compliments you on your skill, you don't have to have a false sense of humility saying, “Oh, it's nothing.” No, it is something. You can simply smile and with a humble spirit respond, “Thank you, God put it in me.”
1Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded. 2And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. - Exodus 36 ESV
