Burying "Talents"

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

My brother used to get a big kick out of saying, “If MJ drew a picture on a piece of toilet paper, Mother would frame it.” I could say he was just jealous, but I’ve seen drawings he did when he was 8 or so and I know he had the talent too. For whatever reason, he never developed it.

Artistic or not, we all have talents and they are God-given. Some may not be as obvious as others, but are no less precious. I would much rather be loved for talents that serve others than ones that involve a brush and paint.

Last week, we studied “the parable of the talents” (you can read it here: Matthew 25:14-30) which was a kind of money in biblical times but often is taught in correlation with the kinds of God-given talents I was speaking about above. The thing that drew me into the scripture last week was the servant that buried his talent and how upset the master was with that decision.

If I was listening properly in church this Sunday, our pastor correlated the burying of the talent with a “burying of our faith.” It doesn’t do us much good if we have faith but we guard and hide it away for that is not what God intended. For faith to grow and multiply, we must get out there and use it.

I always feel like I’m taking somewhat of a risk when I post my art for eyes that may not think it’s all that great. I wonder if we are sometimes like that with our faith? Maybe we worry that once we stick our faith out there for everyone to see and analyze, and, heaven forbid measure its quantity or quality against other, more capable servants, we may come up short. You’ll never know unless you try. The parable seems to say it will multiply. Just don't bury it!