(Note: This article was originally my
contribution for my friend's (Kurt) magazine requirement he have to
comply in one of his subjects in school. But then I decided to post it
here and share it with you all. Hope you'll read it. Enjoy!)
The parable of the talents has some touch of fear into it.
We all know how it happened.
There was a rich man who left for some place doing something
that is in line of his business. Before he left his home however, he entrusted
different amounts of money to his three servants. To the first servant he gave
five talents (the currency used during that time), two to the second and to the
third he gave one. Upon the rich man’s return, he asked for an accounting of
what the servants did to their different talents. The first servant told his
master that he was able to generate five more, which made the rich man happy
and asked the servant to join him in his happiness. The same thing happened to
the second servant, who was able to generate two more. But the third suffered
the fate different from the others. When he told the rich man that he hid the
talent because of his master’s hard character, he was thrown out and his hidden
talent was given to the first servant.
Now when you come and think of it, it does have a “fear
factor”. Just imagine when instead of money being taken away from you, it’s the
talent that you have that will be taken away.
Here’s a trivia: the word talent—or synonymous to gift which
is our modern understanding of it—actually originated from Jesus’ parable of
the talent! Look it up in the etymology of the word in the dictionary or better
yet check it out in the website of Merriam Webster.
So you see, the “talent” that Jesus talked about in Matthew
25: 14-30 is the root of our modern understanding of the word “talent”.
Do you want to have your talent taken away from you because
you hid it, and didn’t use it, hone it and improve it?
Imagine you are a basketball player, someone of Dwayne Wade
or LeBron James caliber. You’re playing in the NBA, get paid well and enjoy the
luxuries brought to you by your multi-million contract. Then suddenly one day,
you wake up and discover that all that talent disappeared. Then next, you’re
kicked out of the team and you lose a lot of money!
Or if you can’t relate to the first example given above, imagine
that you are a famous diva, someone that gives Mariah Carey and Celine Dion a
run for their money. Then one day you wake up losing that golden voice which
brought you to stardom!
Those thoughts surely give you the chills.
Everyone has their very own set of talents. When God created
man, He created him in His likeness and His image. No ifs, no buts. He created
us the way He wants us to be. That verse is just so familiar. We either got it
from our Sunday school or our religion classes. And with that, our talents are
included. A package deal as many people would say.
Those talents are supposed to be developed by us—the way
Jesus illustrated it in the parable.
But a lot of young people today forget that and instead of
honing them for God’s business, they use them for self gratification and in
their dealings with worldly business. They miss out on God’s purpose and lean
more to their self-purpose. They tend to forget that the talent they have is
God-given and that the Source can easily take it away from them in a twinkling
of an eye.
Some young people may not fall to the first category, but
they belong to the next one. They think that they don’t have the talent or at
least the potential just because they see other people as more talented
compared to them. They also think that they don’t have a talent at all—that
they’re hopeless when in it comes to art, music, sports or whatever those cool
kids at school possess. But talents don’t deal with the arts alone! A person
known to be a jack-of-all trade has something they don’t know how to do. Or
perhaps they know how but the results are BETTER if YOU do it.
You may be this person: you don’t know how to kick the ball
when you play soccer or shoot it when you play basketball, but you know a lot
and is revered at when it comes to computers. Why keep on feeling sad about not
being able to do something you are not good at when at least you know something
and you are good at it? If you focus on that single talent you have for now, it
will grow, and it will be your trump card when you deal with others. And when
you diligently work on it, it will multiply! That’s how God illustrated it to
us through the parable!
Have you considered helping out in your church, especially
your youth ministry, but often asked yourself how you can help out? Your gift
doesn’t have to involve on playing an instrument or dancing or preaching to
help out, your gift in meeting people or making their day brighter with your
smile is enough, and in most cases very much needed in youth ministries today.
It’s not only through the efforts of the leaders that keep the ministry
running. It also involves the young people that comprise the membership body!
Hopefully you’ll realize that you’ve got immense potential
inside you and that you will be encouraged to tap them after reading this
article. Always remember that a potential will remain a potential unless you do
something about it. We all have our very own unique talents, and that makes
people different from each other.
But if not, think about what happened to the third servant’s
talent when he just hid it. It was given away to the first servant. Aren’t you
afraid of losing the one thing that maybe only you know how to do? Think about
it!
by: Ruvs
