Talents

Ever have a passage of Scripture just……click? Something you’ve read over and over, and heard messages about over and over. And you’re thinking, ‘Yep!’ Yeah, just happened over here too.

Matthew 25:14-15

"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”

I am your average person. Really, I am. I’m about as average as you can get. Please, please, no protests. No “Oh, but Leslie, you can do this or you can do that.” Just go with me here. I am an average person with a desire and wish I were more. I think we all have that desire. To be better people, whether it be in art, science, literature, business, gaming, fashion, etc. There is an inherent human desire to be ‘talented.’ I put ‘talented’ in quotation marks because well, it can be very subjective…..beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that jazz. But moving on. I am that average person who wishes she could excel greatly in something. To be perfectly honest, I have no extraordinary talent. I’m not an extraordinary writer like CS Lewis. I’m not an extraordinary composer/musician like Bach. I’m not an extraordinary singer like Aretha Franklin. I’m not an extraordinary actress like Julia Roberts. I’m not an extraordinary personality like Oprah. I’m not an extraordinary singer/songwriter like Adam Young and Jon Foreman. I am just me. Plain Jane Me. And quite honestly, I struggle with that. I can and have dabbled in things like writing, acting, singing, songwriting, but I am not amazing or probably ever will be in just one thing.

So, how does this apply to the parable of the talents, you may ask? I am the man with the one talent. I have been given little. But guess what? That’s ok. God has given it to me so that makes it precious. To mope and hide my talent, living in fear of man, I am like the servant who hid his and was rebuked. Instead, I need to work hard and multiply my talent, no matter how small. I have to still use it for God’s glory because it’s not mine anyways. I may have to work harder than some, but I think I will appreciate it more. And who knows, in searching and growing, maybe I will find that one thing I am passionate about and ‘talented’ in. That’s a beautiful thought.