Dr. Paul Kim, our chapel speaker yesterday, followed up his excellent chapel message on how the gospel deals with the shame in our lives with an evening seminar.
Last night, to a full room in Mills 270, he gave an interactive seminar on discovering and using our God-given strengths in our calling. Although his discussion was geared toward preachers using their gifts, such as analytical thinking, consensus building, problem solving, it was very clear that these lessons could be applied in many realms.
He shared from Ephesians 2 that God has made each of us uniquely to do the specific good works that he has prepared for us to do.  Then, we looked at his use of the StrengthsBuilder, a tool developed by the Gallup organization, to help pastors, particularly, identify their strengths. The idea turns us on our head a bit, as we are used to focusing on areas of weakness and working to improve. Instead, he suggests that we focus on more fully embracing and developing our strengths in the contexts God has given us. He challenged us to really learn what our strengths are, and to focus on honing them and using them to their fullest.