Using Our Talents

I often think of what the Bible tells us of in Matthew 25:14-30 when Jesus explains

"For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods."

This is a beautiful parable that I encourage you to read to better understand what I am writing. Jesus goes on here to explain to us that we should use the talents given to us.

I found out that a talent isn’t what we might think it is, rather it was a unit of measure that was used to measure, among other things, gold and silver. I found that one talent of gold could be worth as much as 3 million dollars today if you factor in exchange rates and inflation. Could you imagine receiving 3 million dollars and simply burying it in the earth and accomplishing nothing? We begin to see why the lord was so upset with the slothful servant.

So, one talent really was quite a lot and I think we are similarly blessed with the "talents" that we are given. It is interesting that the word "talent" is used since to us the word "talent" means "abilities". We can easily translate this to mean that those with many talents will accomplish many things and those with few talents will accomplish few things but whether we are given many talents or few talents we should not bury any of them in the earth.

I am guilty for many years of not using my talents. I would often see preachers preaching boldly or doorknockers going house to house or someone effortlessly striking up a conversation with someone about Christ. I saw people with great skills of organization and networking gather large numbers of people together to forward the message of Christ. Praise God for all these.

I would see all these and when I tried to also accomplish these things I would fall flat and fail miserably. I am a quiet person and find it hard to preach or knock doors or even strike up a simple conversation. I can barely organize my thoughts much less put together a team of people so I began to shy away from doing my part. I felt like I was beating a dead horse and getting nowhere.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, first I believe we should confess our faults and shortcomings but also to let you know that through writing I have found a talent that I can use for the Lord. It is easy for me to write down my thoughts and ideas. My mind is too slow often times to think of details quickly during a conversation but in writing I give myself time to think out what I need to say.

So if you can preach then preach, if you can sing then sing, if you’re a people person then talk with people, if you know how to organize then organize. Whatever you enjoy and that which comes easy for you are your talents. They are not hard to spot when you look at them that way.

If you are good at it then do it and do it for the glory of Christ. Please don’t spend a lot of time trying to do things that others are good at like I did for so long but rather do that which you are good at.