Use your talents or lose them! - Chapter 1
I never had a mentor. I never had anyone that took a close interest in my development with the intention of intimately guiding my future footsteps on to a path of success.
I am sure there were opportunities that I missed to get one. Maybe I was stubborn and rebellious (not maybe, I was!). Perhaps they looked at my attitude and felt there was no point trying. Or maybe the situation never came up where a crack opened wide enough for someone to come in and guide me.
Fortunately, I did navigate the road reasonably successfully and ended up in a place I am happy to be.
I have always been fascinated with time travel and would dearly love to go back and tell my younger self a few “home truths”. Would I have listened and taken positive action? Who knows?
Where am I going with this?
Have you ever thought about what you will do for eternity? Do you have any concept of just how long that will be?
Are you happy with your life now? Could you spend eternity being the person you are now, RIGHT THIS MOMENT?
If the answer is yes, then you probably don’t need to read any further. BUT, if you couldn’t answer YES, then you do need to consider carefully the points I hope to cover in these articles.
Let’s forget eternity for the moment. That is a long way off. Let’s start with our expected flight to the Place of Safety. In our fellowship, we all believe that is something that will happen in our lifetime. Maybe even this decade. It is something that Jesus warned us to be vigilant about, and not be caught unawares. So, hopefully it is something meaningful to us currently.
Right, have you thought about what you will do there for three and a half years? Whatever qualities and gifts you possess now that will be utilised in the Place of Safety. Sharing the tasks and challenges it will present to us all. You will be YOU, a unique person. Someone that will be a key element in the society we will temporarily create there.
So, what will you be doing? Have you considered whether or not you will be a useful person there? A useful individual that will be able to help others overcome their problems and challenges. Or, will you be the one requiring to be helped yourself?
Think about that for a moment. In the computer world there are “seeders” and “leeches”. A seeder shares their files for others to use (GIVE). A leech receives the files gifted by the seeders (TAKE).
Will you be a seeder or a leech? Are you bothered? Well, you should be. Why?
Because at the end of that three and a half years you are going to expect to stand before Jesus. He is going to ask you some tough questions. One such question and the answer you give will ultimately decide how you will spend eternity (OR NOT!)
Read the account in Matthew (read it carefully):
Matthew 25:14-30
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. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Re-read the last verse. Is that your chosen destination? Probably not. However, if you are not putting your full effort in to your life at this very moment, then you need to take immediate action.
In my next article I will try and guide you towards making sure that you are utilising your God given talents in a way that makes sure that you do have a purpose for existing and that you will also ensure that you continue to exist for all of eternity.
Hopefully, I can virtually mentor you to a more positive productive future. One that you control as a seeder, and not one where you are not in control, because you are a leach!
Chapter 2 in this series is titled “By Their Fruits”.
