Our Talents, and more.

"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them."To one he gave five talents, to another , two, and to another , one, each according to his own ability ; and he went on his journey."Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents."In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more."But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money."Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them."The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.'"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things ; enter into the joy of your master.'"Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.'"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things ; enter into the joy of your master.'"And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.'And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.'"But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.'Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.'Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.'"For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance ; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away."Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness ; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."--Matthew 25:14-30

In Biblical times, a talent was a large sum of money. Applied to our lives now, this 'talent' could mean money, time, and a number of other things. It's something to be used to honor God and bring others to Him. This 'talent' can be compared to our whole lives, spent for Him since He gave us life (more than once!) It could be something you're good at, a gift you've been given, "each according to his own ability". And the consequences of hiding your talent and giving if back to Him unchanged and un-used are horrible. The one who did this was called a 'worthless slave', and was thrown out from the Master's presence into 'the outer darkness'.

One way that we can use our talents effectively is in blessing others. For a while I've been thinking about how I can help people on a larger scale. I've been following the blog of a girl who raised a bunch of money for orphans in India through Warm Blankets. (the picture is from her blog) She opened several homes this year, and all of them have bunk beds. But five homes are missing the mattresses. Can you imagine sleeping in bunk beds with no mattresses?!

Every night I would lay down on the soft mattress that I have and remember that.... the Indian orphans weren't. Originally, 11 homes needed mattresses. But partly because of this girl's blogging, 6 of those homes have already gotten them.

And that's when I realized something. I could easily pass this opportunity up. I could decide that this wasn't worth my while, or that I would wait for something else to donate to. (Maybe something where I got more of the credit?!) Because (seriously) whether or not I participated, God was going to meet this need. The only decision I needed to make was this: Am I going to be a part of God's work here or not? The truth is, it's not really about me blessing others. It's about letting God bless others through me, and being blessed myself through the process. So do I want to be a part of this, or not? Do you?

If you're interested in the blog I mentioned, here's the link. http://misselainious.com/ You can donate straight from her blog to meet this need(each mattress costs $50). Please check this out! The Harris brothers actually met Misselaini. They blogged about it here: http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2011/07/one-dress-100-days-for-orphans/

It would be great if we could get a blog train going about this! :D You know, you blog about it because I did, because Misselaini did, so then someone else does. :)