I recently took my favorite wool navy blue suit out of the closet. I was going to have it cleaned so I could wear it to a special function I have coming up in the next couple of weeks. It had been hanging unused in my closet for the past two years. It was my favorite YSL suit and I looked good in it!
As I was getting it ready to go to the dry cleaners, I noticed a small white spot on one of the shoulders. Upon closer inspection, I noticed more and more white spots in various locations all over my prized suit. It didn’t take me long to realize that my favorite suit had been eaten by moths! Ruined, because I hadn’t worn it so long. I was heartbroken.
Then I started thinking…
I wonder if God feels the same way with us?
God has gifted each of us in a unique and special way! We each have talents that we love to do and we do them naturally and we do them well. I’ll bet that each of us has a talent that other people have commented on in the past. I’ll bet each of us has heard someone comment, “Wow, I love the way you….” and we usually dismiss the comment as ” they are just being nice” and we move on. For a wide variety of reasons, we fail to spend the time to develop these gifts and we spend all our time chasing the dreams of others.
John Ortberg writes about how each of us approaches the use or non-use of the gifts we receive in his book, Before you can walk on water, you need to get out of the boat. He writes.
“Anytime a gift is given, the recipient must choose to respond in one of two ways. The first way says, “This gift is so valuable it can’t be risked.” They realize that when they bring their gift out of the box and into the open, things may not go well. The gift may be poorly used. Others may not always admire it the way we want. It may even get broken. Taking the gift out of the box is always a risk.
The second way says, “This gift is so valuable it must be risked.” They understand that if the gift is not brought out of the box, it will never be used at all. To leave the gift in the box is to thwart the desire of the giver. There is no tragedy like the tragedy of the unopened gift.
Along with the gift you have been given a choice – whether or not you will open and use it or not.”
So let me ask all of us…where are your gifts?
Do you know what they are?
Are you using them in every aspect of your life?
I believe that at the end of our life, we will come face to face with God. At that meeting, he will ask us two questions.
One of those questions will be: “What did you do with the gifts that I gave you?”
Think about that… I hope you don’t say…” the moths ate them.”