The parable the Church gives us today reminds us that God gives each one of us different gifts. One man received five talents, another two and another one. But, you know it’s not a person’s gift that matters; what matters is how he uses it. God never demands from a person more than he has received.

The fact of the matter is that we are not equal in talent, but we can be equal in effort. Whatever talent or gift we possess whether it is great or small, we must use in the service of God and for the building up His kingdom.

It’s a great lesson in life, if we learn it, because we don’t have to be jealous of anyone or envious of someone else’s life. Each of our lives is special and a unique reflection of God’s love.  The only way to use our gift, even the gift of faith, is to use it in the service of the Lord and in the service of one another. If we don’t use it, we will surely loose it.

Booker T. Washington was an African American slave. At the age of sixteen, he walked almost five hundred miles from his slave home to Hampton Institute in Virginia. When he got there, he was told that the classes were filled.

Undaunted, he took a job at the school doing menial jobs, whatever he could find. He did these so well, the teachers provided him with room as a student. Eventually, he became a famous teacher there and founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He did small jobs so well; he was trusted with a larger one. “For to everyone who has, more will be given…but from the one who has not, even what he has will taken away.”

Find your gifts, be grateful for them and then give them away often and with much joy!