Talent Requires Practice
God gifted you with the best talent ever. You are so incredibly good at this Creative Thing that people have been telling you since you were a child “ah, look at this! He/she is so good at this thing! They have a natural talent that is going to take him/her far!” You are the star of this Creative Thing in your social circles, unmatched, unrivaled, all without lifting a finger of effort. You are praised and loved and you felt like the sky is the limit…
…then you hit the wall.
Maybe you reach the age where your natural talent doesn’t quite cut it anymore. Maybe you get to college or trade school and are suddenly surrounded by people as equally (or more!) talented than you are. Suddenly you find yourself falling from that pedestal you’ve been on and that talent you relied on for so long feels like it’s barely worth anything. Maybe you even question if God gave you a talent in the first place. Maybe it was all just a dream, maybe you were told you were gifted one too many times as a kid. Maybe everyone in your entire life was just being nice to you and they’re all huge liars and you shouldn’t have tried to pursue the Creative Thing as a career or further your education in it. Maybe you’re a talentless hack without any kind of ability or gift.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Or — to switch things up a bit — perhaps you have simply entered the stage of life where your natural talent isn’t enough to carry you further. This can be frustrating, or scary, but it’s not the end of your creativity, nor the end of how God made you, nor the end of His purpose with the gifts that He gave you. Perhaps you’ve reached the point where it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
As nice as it would be for natural talent to fuel our creativity for our entire lives, that is usually not the case. More often than not we reach the limit where the natural structure of our innate gifts can’t hold up the projects we want to build with it. It is sort of like being handed a little hammer as a child. We hammer little plastic nails into little plastic boards with premade holes and everyone praises our coordination and ability. We’re the star of four-year-old construction workers across the playground!
As we grow, however, the nails shift from plastic to metal, the boards from plastic to wood, and our little, plastic hammer becomes useless. We still know how to use it, but what we are called to do has quickly outpaced the tools we have in our toolbelt. The nails dent the hammer with each blow, the boards no longer have premade holes, there are splinters everywhere and how are we supposed to build a birdhouse under these conditions?! The plastic hammer — our natural talent — needs an upgrade.
So, what happens then?
That is when we shift gears from solely describing our gifts as “I’m skating by on my natural talent alone” to “I am actively pursuing my talent”. Do you see the difference? Can you see how we can shift our mentality in order to keep pursuing our talents? Talent does not mean you can skip practice. It does not mean you can skip learning, wisdom, and patience. Talent is a beautiful and wonderful thing, but it alone is not enough. There needs to be structure, training, and knowledge.
Do not be discouraged if suddenly your talent doesn’t feel like enough. Do not be afraid if you are suddenly questioning if God even gave you a talent in the first place. He likely did, but now is the time to transition from “skating by on my talent” to “study and elbow grease”. Now is the time to pursue your talent through practice and knowledge, rather than just relying on your own innate abilities.
Now, honestly, is where the fun begins!
Putting it into Action
Have you hit the wall with your natural talent? Does it feel like it can’t carry you any further, or that you’ve quickly become outpaced by your peers? Were you a little too confident that talent was all you needed to produce quality works for the Kingdom? Take some time this week and look into classes, textbooks, or even simple YouTube videos related to your gift and learn some new techniques, and then practice them. Ask God to help guide you through study opportunities and open doors so that you can earnestly pursue the knowledge needed to make your creativity flourish. Put weekly practice days in your schedule, where your creative time is dedicated to learning a new skill or practicing an old one, rather than working on a project. Do not underestimate the value of practice, particularly when you have a natural talent!
“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
