Using God’s Gift of Our Talents: A Path to Joy and Abundance | | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Jesus, in his Parable of the Talents, memorably illustrates how

human life and God’s kingdom work.  Our life is a story we

co-write with God, who hands us plot outlines: geography,

gender, genetics, socio-economic position, creativity, health,

personality, temperament, as well as our unique, innate gifts.

God, considering our abilities, assigns us varying niches in

his ecosystem, prominent vocations, or quieter ones.  But

God is kind to all, lavishing on us life itself, nature, birds,

sunshine, sleep, the joy of movement, and human kindness.

As well as individual gifts!  We each have 600 to 700 talents–

Rick Warren cites research! –most of which we never use.

Our vocations are a test, and our happiness and biography

pivot on how we use our gifts.  Those who rarely squander

time but invest in their talents lead ever-bigger lives.  Their

gifting and influence expand exponentially.  They spot and

mine hidden opportunities, and experience relative success,

financially, too; an always-interesting life, and the exhilaration

of achieving their goals with good work which blesses many.

Some, though, do not nurture their talents, feeling resentful

and defeated as they side-eye those with five times their assets

of family, education, charisma, connections, capital, time, energy,

intelligence, good looks or good sense.  Fearing their work may

come to nothing, they attempt little, leading grudging, lazy

lives.  Their talents, unused, wither, creating a vacuum for the

hard-working to shine.  This slothfulness leads to loneliness,

sadness, and judgement, while the gifts of the diligent multiply.

To savour the excitement of living, we need eyes bright

with bounce-out-of-bed purpose—and the gift of purpose

has been given to us: to focus our lives on excellent work

with our talents, great or small.  Purpose delivers us from

wasting our precious lives on triviality.  It rescues us from

a black hole of addictions to success, money, fame, food,

or phones.  It is the pathway to happiness and abundance.

And, on any day, during any decade of our lives, we

can start revising them and rewrite a beautiful new story.

And though we may be well, well behind those who have

steadfastly used their abilities, if we now assess what we

can do with our current strength and energy, which changes

as we do, and then nourish our neglected gifts, starting

with those which most make our hearts sing, those talents

will blossom, filling the rest of our lives with aliveness,

new interests, and new opportunities to be a blessing to

the world which God so loves.  And, in God’s kindness,

our five loaves may yet feed five thousand.  May it be so!