Tag Archives: humility

Continuing Education: Hams for Jesus

Posted by Dave Gipson on

The last three posts bring me now to what God has taught me about humility and the use of my gifts. I am experiencing a fascinating aspect of spiritual growth that I like to call the “pendulum swing”. This happens when we discover we are wrong, and we do an “over-correction”. We discover our error, and we “swing wide” to the other extreme to fix the problem.

That’s what I had to do for a period of time, as a creative person – to take my “self” out of the equation, so that my ego didn’t get in the way of God using me. And boy, did I ever do it! Actually, I probably went a little too far the other way. It got to the point where I felt guilty using my gifts in public, or receiving any praise from others.

It was at that point God threw a penalty flag. He told me it was time for me to stop avoiding my gifts, but now to begin using them the right way and for the right goals. It was time to stop avoiding the spotlight, and to use my gifts to their fullest extent.


So today, I am enjoying being a fully-matured “ham for Jesus”. I do not avoid using my gifts, but only will be sure to continually check my motives along the way. But at the same time, I do not react to accusations of being out for my own glory. Honestly, I know how to do that really well, so I can tell when I’m actually walking in God’s Spirit.

Finally, for those of us who have a showy, audacious, extravagant gift – God does not want us to fain a false humility. He doesn’t bless us with a gift and then shame us for using it. He may shut down our opportunities for a while, but it is only to teach us to use the gift responsibly. When that happens, it is only to help us realize that though we are gifted, God can only use us when our hearts are right.

But if our hearts are His, then we are to use our gifts audaciously, with joy and exuberance! We are to never apologize for our talents, or allow ourselves to be chided by those who only covet our abilities (and there will always be those who will – count on it). We have learned our lessons, and our gifts have been laid intentionally at God’s altar. Now God is saying to take them up again, and use them as weapons to rescue a world lost in sin, sorrow and hopelessness. Our gifts bring light and illumination to a dark world – so submit them to God and use them for His glory alone.

Oh, and by the way…HAVE A BLAST DOING IT! It’s OK – God’s reward for using the gift correctly is the joy you will feel in being used. You’ll know the thrill of being fitted on His hand like a glove, and creating beautiful things through that simple little gift He gave you – what an honor!

Continuing Education: Pantsed for Life

Posted by Dave Gipson on


There are few things funnier than seeing someone full of themselves get their pants pulled down in public.  As a youth pastor, I got mine pulled down while crossing an intersection.  Believe me, I will never forget the experience…and neither will the drivers in that intersection!

The first half of my adult life, I’d have to say that God was teaching me humility and discipline mostly – in other words, He had to repeatedly let the air out of my ego.  When I started out in ministry, I’d have to admit (along with my most severe critics) that it was pretty much all about me.  My attitude was: God has gifted me, called me into ministry – therefore, my job was to give people the benefit of those gifts.  Um…yeah, pretty arrogant.

Over the course of several years spent employing this stellar philosophy, God proceeded to “beat the living crap out of me”, as I’m now fond of reporting.  I discovered to my surprise that, despite my extensive talents and gifts, God refused to use me in any measurable significant way.  Oh… and on an additional note, people couldn’t stand me either.  

I realized that God wouldn’t use me until I became less about promoting myself and more about helping people and serving Him (imagine that!). So over the course of the next several years, I became a “recovering jerk” and tried to let God teach me how to be humble.  Instead of promoting myself, I helped others use their gifts.  I wrote songs and never told the audience that they were mine.  I asked others to sing the solos, and rarely took one myself.  I wrote plays but gave others the large parts, only occasionally taking the smallest of roles for myself.

So if you are one of those creatives that think your “tremendous gifting” gives you a free pass out of being a decent human being, think again.  No one is so talented that they are indispensable.  People will ditch you and use someone humble and much less talented…and they’ll be just fine with that lesser amount of excellence.  Just how easily I could be replaced was a lesson I learned repeatedly, and to my inexhaustible astonishment.

That was a great lesson learned, but there is one problem with it:  if i stopped listening to God at that point, I might spend the rest of my life assuming He never wanted my performing gifts to shine again.  I’d take those early lessons and think that there would never be a time when God decided to take a different strategy in dealing with me.  But God is always changing His tactics – His teaching methods.  He never wants us to get lazy following Him, or to think that we’ve got a handle on all that “God stuff”.  

Also, He knows that once we learn a lesson, it is time for Him as the Great Teacher to take us through a completely different class.  This way, we keep growing and improving.  So on the next blog, I’ll tell you what God taught me AFTER He humbled me…