Happy Little Trees

Sometimes it’s tough being superior to your friends. And sometimes it’s tough having friends that are more superior than you. So what is the answer? Do we all become like the society Harrison Bergenon rebelled and downplay our gifts? Or do we encourage others to take their gifts and develop them further (which could possible create a bigger rift of separation between us)?

In high school, I read a story in a magazine about a girl who was very beautiful, but she was ostracized because of it. I felt really sorry for that character but then realized in real life, I was witnessing a similar situation with one of my friends being treated that way. Sometimes I felt that my friend’s confidence wavered because she was receiving such harsh criticism because other people less beautiful people were intimated by her appearance.

I’ve seen that scenario happen countless times through life. The gifted person might be more intelligent, more athletic, more beautiful, or more whatever-it-is-they-have-more-of-that-is-desirable that we don’t have.

My gift is the Gift of Funny—and I don’t say that lightly or pridefully. There can be a lot of pressure on you when you’re the funny one. I come from a whole family of funny, so I never really thought much about it as being a gift. It’s just something I kind of grew into that caused my conduct grades to go down.

Being funny, sometimes you feel like the court jester and fear that if you can’t make the king (or audience) laugh, you might get sent to the dungeon. Sometimes you just don’t want to be funny or the center of attention. You want to just be. But on the other hand, there is a very sweet benefit of making heavy things in my life light and sometimes having the honor of doing the same for other people as well.

Once I was asked to help host a wedding shower, and my funny skills were requested. I got very carsick on the way there and found myself sitting on the bathroom floor making friends with the toilet when I arrived after riding in the stop-and-go car. But the show had to go on. I was so not funny, it’s not even funny. I think my friends were disappointed, but sometimes my funny powers aren’t just automatic.

The best time to be funny is when I don’t know I’m being funny, because then it can be a joke for me, too! Unless I’m having a serious moment, and it’s being interpreted as funny, then the situation gets very awkward.

So friends, whatever your gift, even if your gift is being normal, be that to the very best of your ability. Let God use your gift for his glory. And don’t get finagled into thinking that you should downgrade your superpower. Remember when Superman tried to be a regular guy? It was disastrous. It would be the same with you.