USE UP YOUR TALENTS

There isn’t a person born on the face of the earth without talent. I will say that emphatically and would bet my life on it. Because no matter how dull boring bland lackluster or perhaps weak a character might be, I believe there lies within a spark ability capacity or flair that would set him or her up better than others, in some special way.

Absolutely nobody has the monopoly on talent because when God created people, he made sure to equip each with his or her own ‘tool box’ and that tool box is packed with an array of tools meant for every particular problem that would crop up in a person’s life. The other name for these God-given tools is ‘talents’. Now a person may have a dozen tools or talents inside the box or maybe just one but numbers don’t matter. It’s what you have and what you do with it that does.

When we speak of talent, we often associate it with creative talent in the arts and performances, business flair, academic achievements, and the like. All these are well and good. They have its uses to make life both interesting and easy for self and others.

But what about the ordinary person next door, who has no title to his name, can’t rattle off a list of achievements, invented nothing, can’t sing and dance, no hobby to show off, and lives a quiet everyday life. Do you think that God also gave him his own ‘tool box’?

The answer is YES but his talent does not comprise those things which can be displayed to the whole wide world in tangible ways. Rather it’s right there within himself. Now you probably think that I’m talking my head off this time, but no. It’s when he shares a bowl of sugar with a neighbor who’s run out of it or when he volunteers to watch somebody else’s kids while the mother runs to the clinic with a sick child, or when he takes out his hammer and restores a broken fence for the old lady living across the street, and many other seemingly ordinary things commonly taken for granted by many of us.

So what is his talent? It’s this-- the gift of sympathy, compassion, kindness, generosity, attention and care, understanding, charity, perceptive, concern, thoughtfulness, consideration, love. His talent is the selfless giving of himself to others – using it to help others get on with their life or help lighten their way from hardship to ease, from despair to hope, from sadness to joy, from fear to courage.

He gives of himself unselfishly with every opportunity that presents itself day after day seeking no honor or recompense for his effort. He has no illusions of greatness and considers these things as quite normal and ordinary as eating his regular meal of rice and fish. He does very well with his own tool box of talents, don't you think so too? :-)

You know, this could very well be our hope…..

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I ould not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me." -- Erma Bombeck