We do a spiritual retreat two times a year called “Discover.” The whole point of the retreat is to position ourselves to discover who God is, who we are, and what it means to live in His unfolding Story. It’s a fascinating journey with twelve people at a time. We spend much of the weekend gathered in a living room, around food, and out in creation engaged in a dialogue with God and each other.

Before the retreat, we serve, we eat, and we storytell together. We take a personality and spiritual giftedness assessment which is analyzed and prepared into a personal portfolio. During the retreat we step into a rhythm of solitude, pod-time (little groups of 3-4), and holistic conversation. We wrestle out loud with one another, we encourage one another, we become advocates for one another, we pray for one another.

Here’s an interesting observation:

When we talked in pod-time about personality, the conversation was exciting and optimistic. There were wonderful discoveries that were both freeing and seemingly healing.

But when we talked about spiritual giftedness, the tenor changed to frustration, pessimism, and confusion.

When we discover and discuss our personalities and even begin to live more fully into them, we probably come a bit more alive. We tend to interact with people a bit better. We even tend to say “yes” to the right things and “no” to the wrong things a bit more.

But–when we begin to live into our spiritual giftedness, the Kingdom advances, the world changes, the Body is strengthened, and eternities are altered.

The enemy that roars like an old, wounded, defeated lion (1 Peter 5:8) is fully engaged in guerrilla warfare, trying desperately to keep us from living into who God has made us to be. Cowards engage in guerrilla warfare.

Is it any wonder that the personality conversation is easy but the spiritual giftedness conversation seems overwhelming?