A talking horse showed up at a major league baseball park and asked the manager if he could try out for the team. This team was struggling to win games, and the manager was in danger of being fired, so he thought to himself, “What do I have to lose?”

So he gave the horse a tryout, and, much to the manager’s surprise, the horse could really hit a baseball! No matter what the pitcher threw, the horse could hit it. He sprayed the ball all over the park, and even hit a few over the fence!

The manager signed the horse to a contract and put him in the starting lineup that very night. In his first time at bat, the horse swung mightily and hit a long drive into the gap in left-center field. But the horse just stood a home plate. The manager screamed, “Run! Run!”

“Run?” the horse said. “If I could run, I’d be in the Kentucky Derby!”

We can’t be good at everything, but every Christian is good at something. We have all been gifted to serve in the kingdom in ways that build up the church. Just as a human body has many parts, each with its own unique function, so in the body of Christ each part has its own job to do.

Romans 12:4-8 says, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

This is not a complete list of all the spiritual gifts, but most Christians see something in these verses that describes how God has enabled them to serve in the church. Every believer should understand their particular area of giftedness and strive to do their very best to fulfill their purpose in the church.

Those who try to serve in some way other than the way they have been gifted often find themselves frustrated and unfulfilled. They also tend to frustrate those with whom they are trying to serve.

However, those who have a good understanding of how God has blessed them to serve experience a kind of satisfaction that is found nowhere else. They find themselves in synch with God and with the people they are working with in the kingdom.

If you have not yet found out what your place of service in the kingdom is, ask a mature Christian to help you find it. And once you’ve found it, do your best to improve how you serve God and people in the unique way that God has blessed you to serve.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God…”—2 Timothy 1:6.