Share Your Gifts Now Before It’s Too Late

What choices are you making in how you live your life? Are those choices ones in which you are using your gifts to make a difference in the world and to help others? Are you living your true purpose and passion and doing what you came here to do? Or is something holding you back?

Are you afraid to step out of your comfort zone and are you holding back gifts you were meant to share because you are afraid or because you feel unworthy? I encourage you to share your gifts now before it might be too late. Be of service to others with those gifts because you never know how much time you have left to share them. And you might never know how many lives you would have touched had you taken a different path or had you just reached out and shared those precious gifts.

I recently watched “60 Minutes” and was inspired by a man featured in the show’s first segment. Affected emotionally by a story in the third segment, I found the second one an interesting and illuminating contrast to the other two. All three involved men and their choices of how they are living their lives and how their choices have affected others. Their stories call into question the decisions we are making in our own lives and in what ways our lives are affecting others.

Stepping out of their comfort zones

In two of the segments, the men were stepping out of their comfort zones, moving on with their lives, using their special gifts and working on their craft as they also continue to work on healing their emotions and the fallout from the traumas each experienced.

The man in the second segment, Wolfgang Beltracchi, an extraordinarily talented artist and genius of a con man, chose to create magnificent paintings in the styles of famous artists like Max Ernst and sell them on the market as originals. He was amazingly brilliant at what he did. At the end of the piece, not only did he have no remorse for what he had done and the many lives he had so adversely affected, but his story ended with his one regret about using the wrong white paint that led to his downfall and the unraveling of his longstanding scam.

To watch this segment, go to http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-con-artist/. Or you can learn more by clicking the picture below.

Not only did Hall, who many have called a hero, have the courage to confront this gunman and put his own life in jeopardy, but after the 17-year-old gunman fled the building, Hall returned to stay with the three injured students, comforting each, as he watched them all slip away. Those are moments that continue to haunt him.

As he was sharing the story, you could see that he still carried the trauma and weight of that day within his heart. It was clear that the horrific memories of that day will probably be with him always. He told Pelley that he was just sorry he couldn’t have done more. It was Pelley who reminded him that he did all that he possibly could have, including putting his own life in danger. They were like his own children, Hall explained.

Then viewers learned that Hall and his wife Ashley adopted four children in need of love and a family. For me that was just as heroic – for this couple to make that lifelong choice to create this special family. I know that he and his wife are receiving as many gifts from their children, if not more, but it still takes a special kind of couple to be able to do what they did in creating their blended family.

As the story continued, I was amazed again by Hall’s beautiful heart and his ability to inspire others. He decided about 10 months after the shootings to quit his job and accept a new football coaching position in another local Ohio high school where the children came from troubled and impoverished homes and where the football team had only won two games in three years.

With his love, kindness, skills and motivational encouragement, Coach Hall turned the team around and they began winning games. Not only did they win games, but they developed respect for teachers and teammates and raised their own self-esteem. They began to believe in themselves. Each time Hall stepped out of his comfort zone to help others and to play a bigger game, he positively affected so many lives and probably saved many as well.

Greatness comes disguised in the simple and ordinary

In learning about Hall and all the grace surrounding him and his family, I was reminded how sometimes greatness comes disguised in the simple and ordinary as was the case for Joseph and Mary and their night in the manger with their baby. Mother Teresa also came to mind – so simple and kind and yet so powerful and magnificent. It is the beauty of the loving, kind and giving hearts and the dedication to service and the true uplifting of others that reveal true greatness. Pelley shared that Hall was “a regular man with an extraordinary character.”

To see this segment, go to http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-shooting-at-chardon-high/.

The final segment featured actor Liam Neeson whose wife Natasha Richardson met an untimely death following a fateful fall on a ski slope. Her death reminded me again about how none of us knows exactly how much time we will be granted here to share our gifts and be in special service to others. Neeson is still processing his grief and has done many movies, some of them blockbuster action films, following Richardson’s death. He is doing what he knows and loves best – sharing the gifts of his acting talents with the world.

To see Liam Neeson discuss his grief over the death of his beloved wife, go to http://youtu.be/ff7z6ujUB-A. Or you can click on the picture below.

Both Neeson and Hall are still dealing with the traumas that each suffered. I hope they find peace and comfort and so much joy, and perhaps the right practitioners and professionals to help them clear their hearts of any and all traumas so they can be of even greater service to themselves and to others.

What if he had made different choices and used his gifts in other ways?

The second segment that featured the brilliant artist who served time in jail and is facing a mountain of lawsuits and who created so many problems for those involved in the art world, left me feeling sad for him and his wife and for all the good that was not to be as a result of choices they had made. Imagine if he had used his artistic talents to create his own unique style and provided pleasure and inspiration for those who saw his work. His art work did bring many people initial pleasure, but it all became so tainted when his fraudulent activities were revealed.

Or what if he had inspired young artists and helped them learn the varied techniques that he had so artfully mastered? There are so many other ways he could have used his inspiration and remarkable artistic talent to serve the world and those who might have been uplifted by his unique gifts.

And what was even sadder for me was that after all he had been through, it seemed he had learned very little. I wondered how his life experiences compared with those of Hall and what dynamics formed each man’s character and drive – one who used deception and fraud to succeed and who only regrets the one mistake that led to his downfall and the other who was driven to selflessly help others and uplift those around him.

Sharing our gifts and being of greater service in the world

We all have choices to make in almost every moment — how you will spend your time, who you will spend it with, and what you plan to do in each moment.  May what I share here inspire you to be of greater service in the world and to make very meaningful choices in your lives that will uplift your hearts and the lives of others.

Make a bigger difference in the world before it’s too late

I honor you as well for the magnificent beings of light and miracles that you all are. I am so grateful for all the service you have already given to so many just by being here on this planet now. I look forward to working with some of you to clear any blocks preventing you from stepping out in a bigger way and being of greater service in the world. So many are waiting for you to share your gifts. They might make all the difference in the world for someone who is in need of them.

With blessings, love and gratitude,

Rev. Donna