“Invest In Your Talents!”

“Invest In Your Talent!”(Mt.25:14-30).
Village children like us acquired the art of storytelling aound the fireside. As we waited for the late evening food to get ready, or for food like maize or sweet yams being boiled for next day’s meal, we told and retold stories. We enjoyed listening to those stories even when we already knew them.
Those stories were made new in the manner of telling. We enjoyed it, and those stories made us who we are, because stories were not just for entertainment. Each story had a morale.
Storytelling time was always enjoyable. We always started with riddles. One of the commonest riddles is “Ma ngob ghe ma liba nkwe ni buñ boñ.” “A hen goes to the sea and comes back with many chickens.” The answer is, groundnuts. When you plant a grain of groundnut, you harvest much more than the grain.
The rains have finally watered the grounds in most parts of Ground Zero in my homeland. From tomorrow Monday onwards one cannot hold back any village woman from going to the farm. The rains have been very timely as in my Church today is seed blessing Sunday. When we bless our seeds in Church we go planting with the confidence that God is the one who will give it growth and ensure that we have a good yield at harvest tjme.
The talents with which we are blessed are like the seeds we plant. You realise that those who fully excercise their talents soon become multi-talented. But those who are stingy with their talents are losers.
God is not going to add to you if you have not made good use of what you already have. Unless you make use of the water in a container, the container cannot receive new content. And the longer the water stays in the container, it becomes useless.
Seed blessing Sunday is also a mini Harvest Thanksgiving. The seeds we are going to plant came from God through our hardwork.
There is no food for a lazy man. S/he who would not work should not eat. Agriculture and animal husbandry is also a kind of investment. Whenever you invest in whatever, you will surely reap a benefit. We know of course that when you hope for gain, you should also prepare for a loss. Even so, “nothing ventured, nothing gained!”
Those who do not venture are like the servant who buried his talent and on the day of reckoning he brought just what the master had given him. On the other hand the rich get richer because fools are food for the wise.
Besides good work is rewarded with more work. Gains in your ventures lead to further expansion as you develop an expansionist acumen.
My friend, find out your talent, tirelessly put it to use and the Lord who gave you those talents will bless you and multiply your skills and enable you with further talents. And remember this: The LORD is going to ask you to give an account of how you used the gifts he blessed you with!
Sunday prayer: Holy Spirit help me to put all my energy into investing in my talents for the general good. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.