Do you ever feel like life just takes over and you don't have time to use the gifts that God has given you?  At the moment, that is exactly how I feel as I run around trying to find time to work, raise a 1 year old, clean and tidy my new 3 storey house, cook and look after my husband and lead a life group.  I know that I have many passions and giftings that God has given me, including playing guitar and singing, connecting with young women and mentoring them, creativity and I am sure many more!  But at the moment it seems to take all my energy (see my last post about tiredness!!) to just tread water.  I started doubting whether I really had those giftings and if there was any point in me having them if I would never have time to use them.

Well, God said this to me - those giftings may be dormant at the moment, but they are not extinct.  

So I took it upon myself to look up the definition of those two words and this is what I found:

DORMANT

"Having normal physical functions suspended or slowed down for a period of time"

"Latent but capable of being activated"

EXTINCT

"Having died out, quenched or extinguished"

There will come a time and a place when my giftings will resurface and be used again - they are suspended only for a period of time.  But that does not mean that they have died out never to return again!  

I was reminded of that this weekend at a Youth Camp that me and my husband had been invited to.  We last went along two years ago and led the older session for 16-18 year olds - Rob preaching and me leading the worship.  But since then I got pregnant and had a new baby and it had been almost 2 years since I was able to pick up my guitar and play it (its a pretty difficult instrument to play with a bump in the way....).  I was seriously considering just giving up on music and thought I had probably forgotten how to play anyway, but then we were asked if we would return to the Youth Camp to lead the 16-18 sessions and it was assumed that I would lead worship again.  I was forced to pick up my guitar and revitalise my passion and gifting for playing.  I loved it!  And Rob said that I actually seemed more confident and at ease leading worship than I had ever done before.  

So I guess I just wanted to encourage others out there who might be thinking that their giftings and talents have died a death during their latest season of life.  They are not extinct, they are just dormant, waiting for the perfect time to resurface and be reactivated.  And hopefully they will be even stronger than before.