Unlocking the Creative

The other day a friend and I were catching up. She was casually talking about an organization she was associated with and stated that the leader was incredibly talented, but had low capacity. She also mentioned that others see the high talent and mistake it for capacity. What's the difference? Talent is the shining star who takes center stage and receives all the accolades while capacity is the ability to visualize and build the stage. Capacity means creatively manage resources for the betterment of the whole and stewarding the talent of the people around them. While talent allows us to rise to the top faster, capacity allows us to stay there once we arrive.

As she spoke, it totally rang true for me. I thought through several situations that I have been in and I realized how often I have mistaken talent for capacity and the truth is they are two very different things. Although this conversation was several weeks ago, sometimes there are thoughts that need to simmer and then they unlock clarity unlike any other thoughts. This was one of them.

First- I realized I am a low talent type of gal but have developed a good foundation for capacity. When I have said that to a few friends they want to console me with "That’s not true!" However, I actually take comfort in it. Growing up, I wasn’t the smartest, the fastest, the prettiest, the most musical, or the most artistic.It’s been a struggle to rationalize my life’s calling (even to myself!) as it wasn’t as immediately obvious as it might be for those who have more visible talent.
But I think I do have three subtle talents that have helped cultivate capacity. The first one is that I am teachable. I am always willing to learn and hence always willing to change. Being willing to change allows me to discover the lies that I believe about myself and the world around me. Our willingness to discover and deal with the lies we believe, are a key limit or boundary to our ability to cultivate capacity.

Secondly- I have a gift of friendship. Loneliness and pain were my companions growing up but at key times in my childhood, there were a few people that looked past my circumstances and gave me the gift of friendship. It was that friendship that created a bridge to me continuing to have hope. Because I was so grateful to them, all I could do was commit to developing that gift of friendship and sharing it with others along life’s way. Even as I am writing this, I truly believe that friendship has probably brought more healing and hope to my life (and in the lives of those around me) than any therapy/ministry I can think of.

Thirdly- I have the gifting of being persistent or as some others may call it, stubbornness. Whether it is Winston Churchill or Joyce Meyers - a key value I have gleaned from their lives is that the choice is available to whosoever will to never, never, NEVER give up.

 I think having this persistence, and it being linked to teachability and friendship, has really been a secret to success for my life as well as great ingredients for creating capacity.

As I looked up in the 1828 Dictionary talent and capacity, I gained new clarity that I wasn’t expecting. To summarize- capacity is a passive power; it’s the ability to receive. Talent, however, is an active power; it’s the ability to give.

One of my various “random thoughts”  has been that life is truly about giving and receiving. Often times the Enemy will twist or damage some aspect of giving and receiving for us and that in turn is what causes damage in our relationships with both God and man.

Our physical heart is a great picture of what healthy giving and receiving looks like. The heart has two receiving valves and two giving valves. One set receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and the other gives/releases the oxygenated blood into your body. In a similar way, we need to have healthy giving and receiving valves with people as well as unblocked giving and receiving valves with the Lord. Often, you can see in people's lives where the breakdown of relationships has damaged or blocked one or more valves in their lives and it just causes them continued pain.

Part of my life journey has been the Lord healing and unblocking those receiving valves in my life that were so damaged. But most of the time, I associate receiving with an entitlement mentality. But the reality is that healthy receiving IS a part of capacity. I read a book about healthy giving and in their last point, they asked you to try and only exhale and not breath in. Their point is that we have to breath in AND out or we will only live for a few moments. Part of healthy giving, truly is healthy receiving.

So, Wendy Clark- what’s the difference between entitlement and healthy receiving? At this point (and I reserve the right to add to or change this thought) it is how you steward what you receive. I ask myself: is what I receive for my own consumption only or is it for what our Lord might desire? The weight of that call to stewardship is what keeps me on my knees.

Cultivating my talent is what builds up healthy giving valves. Cultivating capacity, builds up my receiving valves. We need to cultivate both.

Wendy