This weekend Jed and I got to attend a Young Adults weekend sponsored by the Brandon Church of Christ. The theme was "potential". We spent the weekend with about 20 young adults talking about how we can really use our talents for God's glory. Most of us already do work with the churches we attend but I think it is really easy to sometimes underestimate both our own capability and God's power to work through us.
We studied the parable of the talents and there were a few things that struck me. The first was that the servants don't get to tell the master how much they can handle. There is no bargaining about maybe taking on less responsibility than he would give them. Sometimes I think I would like to be able to choose my own talents and say this one is something I can handle and that one's a little more scary so I think I'll leave it.
Second, when we were asked to think of our talents many of us listed things like: teaching, singing, or speaking. Then one of the women suggested that there are other talents like our ability to have patience, or to practice self control, etc. Too many times the talents we recognize as things we can use for the kingdom are very obvious visual things. Or things that the world would call a "talent" and some times even the word "talent" might throw us off the trail of some of our most valuable tools in working for the Lord.
Third, just because we have the ability to do something does not always mean we will recognize that ability. The "one talent" servant obviously did not think that he would be able use it. For me that means that I may need to try things that I am sure I will fail at. Otherwise I could be missing a whole realm of things that God may be able to do through me.
Finally, talents will not always present themselves in fully mature state. It takes work on our part to help them reach their full potential. So it's not good enough to sit at home and think of course I'm doing all that I can. It's not good enough to say well, I've tried to develop patience but it's just not my thing. Or substitute any other spiritual discipline we have trouble with. We may be like the "one talent" servant and be overcome by fear of what might happen if we fail but the truth of the matter is that we were given our opportunities by God and he wants us to use them even if we are afraid.
Often we think about how our efforts have been in vain or how we have failed before but how exciting is it when we think that God has great plans for us if we will only use what He's given. So lets spend more time imagining what could be and less time worrying. It's time to reach our potential.
