Seeing the Potential

What is your core?

This the question that Santa Claus asks of Jack Frost in The Rise of the Guardians:  what is your core, the thing that you are ultimately about?  Figure this out, understand what it is that truly motivates you beyond all the things that you think motivate you, and you can find the thing that will empower you to move forward.

I have been pondering this thought in the back of my head ever since we saw the movie, not so much for the profundity of thought as for the simple acknowledgement of the fact that such a concept exists - and I do not know what the answer to it is for me.  If the core is really the gifts God implants in all of us, that one thing or even things that He has given to us to do, what is it?

I think I may have finally figured my own out.  It is trying to help others be better.

If I look back over the course of my life - the attempts to enter seminary that lead nowhere, the short gigs of teaching, leading a study group, my oft-marred attempts at leadership, even my writing - all of them revolve around some level of trying to help others figure out what they should be doing with their lives and then trying to figure out ways to get them there.

It is like a puzzle.  I see them, see their interests and talents, and somehow see their potential - what they could be doing if they could (fill in the blank here). It is then my "job" to help them to see the potential that I seem to see in them and to get them moving in that direction.

There is little that brings me more joy that the notice that a friend or acquaintance has succeeded, especially when they have done so in a way that uses the gifts they have.  It is like seeing the bloom of a flower which you knew was going to be beautiful  finally appear to the world around it that never gave it a second glance.

I have seen it with my friends; I have seen it with The Ravishing Mrs. TB; I am even beginning to see it with Na Clann as they begin to reach the point that their own gifts are appearing.

But what do I do with this?  I do not really know.  It is not as if there is a job category for "Potential Seer", and I have no initial thoughts on how I could apply this in a way that would significantly help others and let me make a living at it.

But I have found this upon reflection:  my core, my gift, is seeing what is possible for those I know - and then helping them to see that is as well and launch towards it.

You see what you do.  I see what you can do.