Thanks so much for filling in the blank yesterday -- I was really blown away by the response! So, because I know you're curious what the original statement was, here it is:

Christians are people who use their gifts to change the world.

Now, to be fair, the statement was made by a priest as part of his sermon, so in context you can certainly understand his point. But for some reason, the statement sat strangely with me, primarily because:

a) There are people who profess a deep abiding faith in Christ, and who are generally good people, but they may not necessarily 'use their gifts to change the world,' and

b) I didn't like the implication that people of other faiths (or who don't practice any faith) might not use their gifts to change the world.

But then, when I tried to come up with a noun to fill in the blank and make the statement more true, I couldn't. And frankly, I still can't. But I loved reading your suggestions; in particular, I was intrigued by those of you who suggested adjectives ('blessed,' 'dedicated,' and so on), and the statement felt most universally 'right' to me when those were used. However, as some of you pointed out, in theory the sentence shouldn't be used to exclude any group of people, since we should all use our gifts to help change the world for the better.

So, again, thanks for sharing your thoughts! And since we're talking about gifts (and it's always cool to get to know you guys better), I'd love to hear what yours are. What are you really good at? And you're not allowed to say 'nothing,' because we're all good at something. If leaving a comment makes you feel braggadocious, then feel free to use an alias -- but as a friend of mine used to say, if you won't say something nice about yourself, then who will?

I'll start:

I think I'm really good at finding beauty, even in unexpected places. Also? I've got pretty decent penmanship.

How about you?