If you follow my work with School For Seekers on Instagram (or the Cocktail Theology podcast), you’ve probably noticed a huge improvement in our graphics and captions in the last few months.

That’s because Benton Stokes is using his role as the School For Seekers Creative Director for good. (He does that when he writes songs too, but the pics are visible.)

So here’s a Big Shout Out to the Great Artist, and to that particular human down here claiming his artistic gifts and using them.

That’s why you have those talents, Beloved. The little ones, like instinctively knowing when pork chops are done, and the big ones, like putting aside your own internal mess to love on someone who needs it.

You have those talents and skills because this fragile gorgeous troubled joyful world needs them.

We need you.

What talent has God given you?

You might be thinking, “I don’t really have any talents.” or “I’m not great at anything. Nothing marketable, anyway.”

Ahem.

Stop that right now.

Your talents are the aspects of you that improve with practice. Your skills are the result of talent + practice.

I do not have a talent for basketball. Dribbling, shooting, pivoting, guarding: none of these improve with practice. It’s just not the way I’m made.

I have some artistic talent, but not much: I improve when I do visuals, but not much, and it always takes inordinate amounts of time.

I do have a talent for love—for willing the good of another and being willing to act on it—which steadily improves the more I train in developing the skills.

Maybe you have a talent for needlepoint or origami.

How about spacial organization? You look at a friend’s spice drawer or closet and immediately have an inkling how it could be better?

What skill are you developing, that, with God’s grace, makes this big old world a little bit better?

Share in the comments, will you, to encourage others?

Claim those gifts of beauty, comfort, clarity, cooking, tenderness, organization. They are for you, from God, for the betterment of this shared reign of beauty, truth, and hope.

Declare it now: 2020 is the Year of Claiming, Training, and Using My Gifts.

You’ve got talent, and we need you.

And don’t worry: Benton’s got the School For Seekers beauty covered.

(Picture me relieved.)