In 1961, I remember being an 11-year-old boy walking with my father toward the 18th hole at the Pebble Beach golf course. I watched him sink his final putt to win the California State Handicap Championship. After my father sank his final putt, he was led to a white cloth-covered table where a sterling silver plaque was presented to him. I still have that plaque, a reminder of my dad’s remarkable journey.

Yesterday, while I was working in our garage, I saw Dad’s original set of golf clubs. He couldn’t afford good clubs, so he went to a local pawn shop and bought the cheapest set of wood clubs he could afford to learn how to play golf—the same clubs he used to win the state championship. I removed his original clubs from their bag and held them before me, still amazed at what happened.

My dad had never held a golf club until nine months before he won the state championship. Nine months before his winning round, a friend invited my dad to knock out a bucket of balls at the local driving range, where my dad discovered he was a natural. He was so good that he played golf like a professional billiards player, making the ball move and do things in amazing ways.

My dad won the championship at age 53, about the time most players were ending their professional careers and entering the senior tour. He had been a carpenter all his life never imagining that he had such a gift.

My dad’s experience reminded me of the life of a believer. It’s not our education, position, or experience that defines our gifts or empowers our lives. It is a work of the Spirit. God’s gifts are not time or age-specific. They come from the Father in His time and according to His will.

That gifting is what the Lord wants us to discover in our journey of faith. It is unique to all of us allowing us to do things like what happened on the Day of Pentecost when the Church was empowered by God to do things that could only be described as something wonderful.

On the Day of Pentecost, the Church was empowered by God to do things they did not realize they were capable of doing. The witnesses who saw God at work in the disciples would describe what was happening as, “The wonderful things God has done!” (Acts 2:11).

After my dad won the state championship, my mom said, “Charlie, I wish you would have learned golf as a young man. We would be millionaires by now!” God’s gifts allow us to do things that can only be described as wonderful no matter what defines our current station in life. It is never too late to discover those gifts.