Buried Talents – Matthew 25:18
But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
Twenty years ago, I wrote my first poem. Since I cannot sing a note, draw a decent smiley face, or create a simple flower arrangement, I had considered the artistic part of my brain a wasteland, unfit for development. Then one night after praising the Lord while reflecting on the unique beauty of each tiger lily in a vase, I woke up with a poetic version of my reflections in my head. In amazement, I wrote several more poems. I sent the first one to a large Christian denomination, where it was accepted and printed as a full page on the inside cover of its monthly magazine.
Unfortunately, my interlude with creative writing was short-lived since another Christian magazine declined an article and some friends gave my collection of poetry a yawning response. I became discouraged, abruptly ending my writing career. For almost two decades, my desire to write lay dormant. I had hidden my light under a basket rather than letting it shine[1] because I had sought the favor of other people, not God, making myself unusable to serve the cause of Christ as a writer.[2] I blamed others for their failure to encourage me rather than acknowledging that my own pride and fear of rejection kept my pen silent. I was more concerned with protecting myself than delighting in the prospect of ministering to others through the capabilities God had given me.
Slowly, with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, my desire to praise the Lord through the written word reawakened. Beginning with a poem on a card to someone who was suffering, creative writing fueled an increasingly joyous desire to minister to others in the Lord’s holy name. As I wrote with a servant’s heart, my concern with the depth of my ability or lack of it gave way to a deeper longing to bring God glory with everything that is within me.[3]
Have you buried a talent because you think it too small or believe yourself to be inadequate to do something great for the kingdom of God? If so, dig it up, and use it for the Lord’s glory, entrusting Him to shape and expand it. Bring your gifts and capabilities to Christ, depending on Him just as a flower depends upon its stem and roots to bring out its richness. Allow Him to tend the seed of creativity He planted in you, to water, feed, and weed it, so you may produce something beautiful and valuable for the kingdom of God.[4]
Leah’s Prayer
A vase of tiger lilies catches my eye,
So I stop to look and enjoy.
They are delicately beautiful
And to dwell upon them is a delight.
I begin to praise the God who created such loveliness.
The thought comes to mind that perhaps each flower is unique.
I ponder the possibility of magnifying them to the size of a human frame
And wonder if distinctive characteristics would be evident.
If I trained my eyes to look critically at certain features,
Could I not develop a measure by which to rank their beauty?
Lord, help me to see myself as beautiful
Though not in a conceited way
That would be as absurd as a flower being impressed with itself
One does not say to a flower, “You should be proud of your beauty,”
But rather the beauty of the flower sings praises to the glory of the living God who created it.
Let me always remember that I am Your magnificent creation,
And make me as free as a flower from the false standards by which I or anyone else might attempt to
diminish my beauty.
[1] Matthew 5:14-16
[2] Galatians 1:10
[3] Psalm 103:1
[4] John 15:1-5
