Use Your Talents

Sat, 10 Oct 2020

‘Do not neglect the gift you have.’ 1 Timothy 4:14 RSV

Luigi Tarisio was born in Italy in 1796. A collector of violins, he took great pride in scouting out rare finds, and purchasing only instruments of the finest quality. No one really knew about Tarisio’s passion, however, until after he died. It was while his estate was being appraised that some 246 valuable violins were discovered in his attic! One of the most expensive, hidden in the drawer of an old dresser, was a Stradivarius he’d purchased from someone who had also bought it solely as a collector’s item.

Commenting on the matter, Dr WY Fullerton, the gifted Baptist preacher, noted that in preserving the instrument Tarisio ‘had robbed the world of all that music’. And others before him had done the same. In fact, by the time the greatest Stradivarius in his collection was finally played, 147 years had elapsed!

Henry Van Dyke said: ‘Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.’ If you wait until you can perform perfectly, you’ll never do it at all.

Jesus said: ‘You are the world’s seasoning, to make it tolerable. If you lose your flavour, what will happen to the world? And you yourselves will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the world’s light—a city on a hill, glowing in the night... Don’t hide your light! Let it shine for all; let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father.’ (Matthew 5:13–16 TLB)

Understand this: God will hold you accountable for discovering your talents, developing them to the fullest, and using them to glorify Him and bless others.