Use Your Talents!

Not being able to read a map can bring some surprising results. To experts, the task of a map-reader is simply to relate the terrain to the map in the car. But to others, a map is not about what lies ahead, but about what doesn't lie ahead. Every turn bursts with possibilities, or is an adventure waiting to be experienced. Such people are often lost, and frequently late, as they gamble on their intuition, follow their hunches, and allow their wonder to lead them.

In an age of spending reviews and risk assessments, this sense of wonder seems out of place. Resources are scarce, time is money, and there is no room for dreams.

Yet Jesus is at pains to remind us how important it is to wonder, to do something different, to risk. Talents are given to us, not to be buried in the ground, but to be invested, to be tested, and to grow. Of course, there is a chance we might stumble, or fail or - worst of all - be made to look foolish. We can avoid that by never taking a risk, never trying anything new, never putting ourselves in the hazard.

Such people never gamble with what is theirs, are afraid to use what they have been given, and (as it were) sit on the sofa of life and watch the world go by.

These careful people need never fear disaster or disappointment. Take no risk and you will never be hurt, never have your heart broken. But you will never discover the potential within you, never become what you can be. You will never really, in the truest sense, love. For love is the greatest risk of all. And so, the Lord says, have a go. Succeed, fail, but at least do something, for the worst thing is to do nothing at all.