Optimist’s Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

Most anything we do in our lives, needs to be taken care of by investing part of ourselves through our efforts and our endeavors. Usually, we have to invest time, money, or talents to make whatever we do worthwhile. Well, in the book of Matthew, chapter 25,we can read the parable of the talents where we realize that God will judge us some day by what we have invested for Him.

In this parable, a man is about to leave on a journey and he entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to take care of his property and make sure that it continues to work for the master so that it will continue to prosper.

The message here seems to be that if we don’t use what God gives us, we will lose it. This seems to be true sometimes; just think of many who do not use what God has given them and some may not even realize what they possibly have to use for God. If we fail to reach out and share God‘s gift with others, then gifts have done us and everyone else no good at all.

God wants us to use His gifts to multiply them for the benefit of His Kingdom. God expects us to try to develop the good things we have so that the world around us can benefit from them, so that those gifts might be fruitful in us, and add to the good things that God‘s world needs, especially today.

God expects us to invest what he has given to us in His work. When we invest in God, it’s like investing in a mutual fund. God gives us friends, companions, people to help us, a church, and He gives us His Holy Spirit and His living word to encourage and inspire us to do His work.

You see, God, like that master in this parable( if you read this gospel lesson) believes in us. He trusts us with His love and the talents He gives us so His Kingdom can be a better place.