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USING OUR GIFTS FROM THE LORD
Rt. Rev. Thomas L. Kline
Reading: Matthew 25:14-30
Did you know that the Lord has created you to be a special person? There is not another person on earth who is just like you. The Lord makes everybody different, because He knows this is the way to make heaven.
Think what it would be like if everyone were the same. What would the world be like if everyone loved to do exactly the same things? Suppose the Lord created everyone so that they loved nothing more than to build brick walls. Now there are a lot of people who like to make brick walls, but imagine if everyone on earth had this one love. The world would be a very sad place. No one would get anything done. There would be no one to make the bricks, no one to make and drive the trucks that carry the bricks. And who would take care of children, make clothing, grow food, or teach school? The Lord knows that everyone has to be different. Everyone has to be given special talents and skills so that heaven can come upon the earth.
Everyone can look at their lives and see talents and skills the Lord has given them. You may have a special talent for playing a musical instrument, reading books, playing baseball, or drawing. Sometimes we have to look very hard to find our talents, because the Lord often hides them. But the Lord promises us that we all have special gifts, and the gifts are all different. Think of your talents. What special gifts has the Lord given you?
Have you ever seen someone being made fun of because he was not good at doing something? Maybe at school you know someone who can’t read well, or someone who is not very good at sports. Sometimes the other students will laugh at that person because he makes mistakes. But when we think about it, we should never expect someone to be good at everything. The Lord gives us different talents. The student who cannot read well might have great talents in music. The student who cannot hit a baseball may have great talents in science. Sometimes a person may have hidden talents he won’t find out about for years to come. The Lord makes us all different. This is beautiful in His sight.
Once the Lord told His disciples a parable about some talents. The Lord said that there was a master who called his servants together and gave them each a different amount of silver talents. The first two servants went out and used their talents wisely, and they doubled the amount of talents they had. But the third servant hid his talent in the earth. When the master returned from his long journey, he rewarded the two servants who had used their talents wisely, but he punished the servant who had merely hid his talent in the earth.
The most important thing we can do is to use our talents to serve others. How sad it would be if the Lord gave us special gifts and we just forgot about them! If we don’t learn to use our God-given talents, we are like the servant who hid his talent in the earth. But if we discover our talents, and then use them to make others happy, we become like the wise and faithful servants in the story. We “enter into the joy of our Lord” and discover heavenly happiness.
Amen.
