Ep. 13: “Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts” With Brian Plachta
““The world needs you and your unique gifts to build up the body of Christ. When you discover and use them in life-giving ways, you tap into joy.””
Let me introduce Brian Plachta from Grand Rapids, MI—husband, father, attorney, writer, and spiritual director! He will tell us about himself and introduce the concept of spiritual gifts. We will learn what spiritual gifts have to do with health.
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Seeking a Better Path
Brian describes always wanting to be a priest. Then in college he met Denise (now his wife of 37 years) and applied to law school. But, he still wasn’t sure. He sought counsel from a priest and was encouraged to continue the path he was on and also to start seeing a spiritual director every month.
Marriage, children and a law career followed but when he was in his 30’s he describes being discontent with his professional life: “Early burnout.” “Not satisfied.” “Grumpy and frustrated.” “Not sure of my purpose in life.”
All these feelings served to “nudge” him to seek answers and a better path. He took an inventory of his spiritual gifts, a scripture-based assessment, and found out his 4 gifts are: writing, teaching, encouragement, and administration. These gifts became his roadmap for life.
The Gift of Discontent
Brian describes a universal and common pattern of growth and transformation. It starts with order, moves to disorder, and finally to reorder. His discontent came from disorder and was a wake-up call, or God’s nudge, telling him to slow down and re-think his life.
The result? Brian enrolled in a 3-year program to become a spiritual director and obtained his masters in pastoral counseling. He remembers how joyful he felt at his first class , when he met the other students.
“I found my peeps. There are people who want to talk about God. I felt like I found my new home.”
Making the Leap to Become Spiritual Director
It wasn’t always easy. Brian had a busy family life, worked as an attorney, and had moments of insecurity about being a spiritual director. It was scary, and he half-joked to himself:
“If people knew how screwed up my interior life was at times
they would never come to me for spiritual direction!”
Their teacher, a sister, encouraged him and his classmates and told them that God had given them a gift—the gift of encouragement—and she said:
““You need to go out into the world and use it.
Otherwise you are putting your light under a bushel basket!” ”
So Brian did just this and he’s determined to help others to discover and use their own gifts.
Discover Your Spiritual Gifts—Spiritual Gifts Inventory
The inventory is meant to be practical and lists 60 different gifts, such as, hospitality, evangelism, artistry, writing and teaching.
After finding his own path, he has created a Spiritual Gifts Inventory to help others uncover their own God-given gifts. He writes: “The world needs you and your unique gifts to build up the body of Christ. When you discover and use them in life-giving ways, you tap into joy.”
Many who take this inventory feel affirmation if they realize their life activities actually reflect their gifts. Brian’s elderly mother was in assisted living. She completed the inventory and found her #1 gift was intercession. She was overjoyed with the new understanding. “Oh, that’s what I’m called to do! I have a purpose!”
Knowing your purpose in life is profoundly satisfying—it contributes to a sense of wellbeing and helps you live a healthy life.
Interpreting Your Results
If the top-scoring gifts on your completed inventory are not activities that are part of your life, Brian advises you take time and prayer to “unpack” what this might mean. A close friend, counselor, or spiritual director may be very helpful. You might find yourself being called back for more or different training or education to “retool” yourself.
Completing the inventory is helpful for everyone, but particularly valuable if you are feeling discontent or if you are entering a time of uncertainty or change, such as retirement.
Brian offers these specific steps you can take:
Request your own copy of the Spiritual Gifts Inventory and prayerfully compete the assessment and learn what else you can do.
Contact Brian to ask questions or even request a free phone or Zoom call.
Consider attending his monthly webinar. Go to brianplachta.net, top right tab called “Finding Flow Webinar.”
Sign up for Brian’s weekly reflections on similar topics.
Check out his earlier book called Life’s Tool Box..and watch for his latest book coming later this year, Finding Flow—Doable spiritual Practices to Reclaim Inner Peace, Balance, and Wholeness.
Read Halftime or Falling Upward, both dealing with the two halves of life.
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About Brian Plachta
Brian J. Plachta is a writer, spiritual director, and speaker. He holds a Masters in Pastoral Counseling and is a frequent teacher at workshops, retreats, conference centers, and colleges on a broad variety of practical spirituality topics. He’s been spiritual director for 25 years and volunteers at Guiding Light Mission, an addiction recovery center.
Brian writes a blog, Simple Wisdom for Everyday Living, that goes out via email weekly since April 2016 to now over 2000 subscribers.
He’s also a lawyer with the law firm of Plachta, Murphy & Associates, P.C.
Brian is working on his third book, Finding Flow—Doable Spiritual Practices to Reclaim Inner Peace, Balance, and Wholeness. His book provides an engaging four-fold pattern of Christian living—solitude, spiritual reading, community, and contemplative action. This set of doable practices has had a profoundly positive influence in his life and those of the thousands of people he serves as a blogger and spiritual director.
Learn more about Brian at his website: www.brianplachta.net.
About Donna
Dr. Donna Chacko promotes health of body, mind, and spirit through her website (serenityandhealth.com), her blog, and programs at her church. She is the author of Pilgrimage: A Doctor’s Healing Journey (Luminare Press, 2021).
Donna previously practiced medicine for forty years, first as a radiation oncologist and later, after re-training, as a family medicine doctor. What she learned taking care of immigrants and the homeless in Washington, D.C., continues to influence her programs. A central theme is that health of body, mind, and spirit is interrelated and connected to God, all as a package deal. Donna is a wife, mother, and grandmother and lives in University Park, Maryland.
Questions? Reach out to Donna Chacko.
I am increasingly fascinated by the cycle of life after death and growth after loss. At Easter, Christians joyfully celebrate this very thing: Jesus resurrected to new life after His death on a cross, thereby earning new life for each of us. But this cycle is part of life for all of us.