Leadership, Giftedness and Maturity

John Maxwell said "there is no correlation between giftedness and maturity"

I think a lot about that statement and I wonder about a couple of parts of it.

There have been many times in my life where my giftedness have gotten me into situations where I was not mature enough to flourish. You know - being a public speaker, you get a persona about you that has you regarded more highly than you should be. Or, correctly handling something as important as God's Word has people looking to you for answers.

The bottom line is that I can't assume that just because God has given me a gift in a particular area that I am mature enough on my own to handle all of the responsibility that comes with it. I need to leverage every opportunity afforded me by the giftedness that God has given me for maturity. I don't know how many times I have seen my ultimate effectiveness undermined because I assumed that my giftedness qualified me to be at the table rather than looking for times where my giftedness offers an opportunity to grow and mature.

I will likely never grow up. I'm not sure that I really want to. But, just because I refuse to grow up doesn't give me an excuse not to mature...

(I ran spellcheck before I sent this, is that a sign of maturity? :-) OH, NO... NOT THAT!