I asked for a pom-pom key chain last year for Christmas.
You know the type – they were everywhere last year during Fashion Week the world over. All sorts of colors and textures and I wanted a rabbit fur LARGE pom-pom key chain. I told my mom and put it at the top of my Christmas wish-list.
The trouble was that whenever I saw one it just didn’t seem to be the right fit. The hardware was too glitzy or the pompom wasn’t soft enough. The colors weren’t right and I just wasn’t happy with any of them.
Christmas Morning came and I opened three individual little boxes: you guessed it. I had three pompoms of various brands, sizes and colors. My sweet Mama had tried to meet every need by buying three and offering to return the two I didn’t want.
Sometimes our walk with God is like that. We feel like “if I can just serve in this capacity I’ll be happy.” “If they’ll just use me on the praise team, my life will be complete, God gave me a voice after all, and I just know that’s the perfect fit.”
The biggest problem with this mindset is that God already created you with a perfect slot in mind — and it’s not ever going to be the expected place. If you think it’s praise team? Honey, you may be miraculously gifted in the place of hospitality. If you really wanted to minister to young ladies? You may actually be placed in the Sunday School department with glitter and toddlers.
The Bible says in I Corinthians 12:18 “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.”
Our natural, physical, dare I say “carnal” desires are those that seem to match our physical giftings, but may not necessarily be in line with the spiritual line-up God has in mind. God placed each of us uniquely where we are so that we can grow and glorify Him. Note that I did not say that we could grow and glorify ourselves.
The biggest problem with my pom-pom desire last Christmas wasn’t that it was wrong, it was that it just wasn’t the right fit for me. I loved the look on the street with these adorable handbags and that giant pom-pom bouncing around. It was the perfect accessory. But when tried on with me and my personal style and persona? It wasn’t the right fit.
Our relationship with God is the same.
Your gift is not an accessory to your life. Our unique giftings weren’t given to accessorize our lives with praise, goodness and glory. Our gifts were given to fit perfectly into the kingdom of God and bring Him praise, goodness and glory.
The psalmist David said it this way: “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple (Psalm 27:4).”
The right fit for you will always be the one that brings you into the house of God. The right fit will always bring you closer to Jesus. And finally, the right fit will always be the one that is true to the “you” He created you to be: kind, holy and altogether lovely.