Gifts

I am in a weight loss group called "the Light Weigh". It's a Catholic group of women [a few men] who use the idea of sacrifice for others as a way to lose weight. If you're not Catholic then you might not know that the Catholic religion teaches that suffering here on Earth can help those in need. We "offer up" our sufferings to Jesus as gift to help lessen the suffering of others who may be in need.

The topic at last night's meeting was the gifts that each of us can bring to the world. There are 7 gifts: service, teaching, giving with zeal, contributing, mercy, exhorting, and prophecy. I am wondering what my gift is. The theory is that we each have one of these gifts in a more dominant way. You can have all of them or some of them to lesser degrees, but one will stand out for you more than others. I don't think it can be prophecy because I don't have any foresight [prophets are supposed to unite themselves to Jesus and proclaim His pathway, direct us spiritually toward the Lord]. This one doesn't feel like me. I contribute [which is monetary] but not as much as I could and probably not as much as I should. Definitely not it. Exhorting, probably not. Exhorters bring people to the Catholic Church. They're the folks that convince people it's the correct religion, the one founded by Jesus Christ and the only true religion [sorry it that sounds exclusionary, but really, if you don't think your religion is the right one, why would you bother with it?]. While I did bring one guy to the fullness of the Catholic faith through my explanation of the Virgin Mary as venerated [not worshipped], I don't think I've really done this to any degree. That leaves SERVICE, TEACHING, GIVING WITH ZEAL, and MERCY. Not teaching because while the person doesn't have to be an actual teacher, I don't think I've taught anyone about the Catholic faith, except again in that one instance with that one guy. I don't really understand giving with zeal as a gift. It has something to do with being ultra-organized and always working on some task. Since I am WAY unorganized and prone to laziness, I'm going to take a guess that this isn't my gift. So I think my gifts is Mercy and not serving. Servants always take care of others. They're the volunteers who run stuff for the Church. They are the behind the scenes people who make sure that all runs smoothly without looking for thanks. Since I do little and again tend toward laziness, I'm guessing this isn't me. Which leaves me with Mercy. When we were discussing this gift it really struck me. People with the gift of Mercy are very compassionate, they feel other's pain [not physically]. They empathize and sympathize and try and help the less fortunate. I really feel like this is what I do with forensic science. The victims of the crimes I help investigate are not always the most upstanding of citizens. They tend to be on the lower rungs of our society - the poor, the disenfranchised, the victimized. I think that by doing my job to the best of my ability and speaking for people who may not have the ability to speak for themselves I am giving the world the gift of Mercy. I need to think about this somemore. I feel another post on this coming later.