Talent
April 16, 2008
by Michael Schwartz
I believe that everyone is born with a gift or talent of some kind.
My gift happens to be music-related; I enjoy writing music and
playing the piano and drumset much more than most other things.
I never have really thought of my talents as gifts from God, so for
the most part, I neglected them. It wasn't until about two years ago
that I really started writing music, and I've only been playing the
drumset for seven months. Mostly, I've used my gifts for myself--for
my personal enjoyment, for attention, etc.
Over these past few weeks, God has taught me something about my
gifts: God didn't give me gifts for my own personal enjoyment. God
gave me them to honor Him.
Through what could be described as coincidence, I happened upon
Ecclesiastes 9. Some of you might already know that the main theme
of this book is "all is vanity."
2 All share a common destiny--the righteous and the wicked, the
good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer
sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man,
so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with
those who are afraid to take them.
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hate, and their jealousy have long since
vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that
happens under the sun.
According to this scripture here, we all have one common destiny:
to die. Everything we do will eventually fade away and be forgotten.
No one will remember Michael Schwartz. No one will know that he
wrote music and played the drumset. No one will know who his friends
were or anything he did in his lifetime. Anything that Michael
Schwartz does with his gifts will be in vain. Forgotten. And if
that's the case, why even bother? Why work with music? Why develop
my gifts if my efforts are futile?
The only things that my gifts can do that will last forever are
things that God does with them. For me to use my gifts only to
benefit myself isn't just selfish, it's foolish. God can do things
with my gifts that will have eternal significance, while the things
I do with them likely won't last at most more than a hundred years.
I told God that He will have complete control over my gifts. I'm
finally giving up and letting Him have control. And after all I've
written here, it only makes sense.
To subscribe to these notes: SUBSCRIBE
E-mail me: vektor@xpertstudios.net
Counter: