W Bernie Bostwick,


CAP®, ChFC®, Executive Vice President


hat are talents? Do they belong to us? Are they a gift given to us? Do observers see just a talented person, or do they see through the gift to


the One who has given the talent?


Te word talent, as we know it today, has come from describing a unit of measure in biblical times (used as a form of currency) to meaning a special aptitude today—often athletic, creative, or artistic. Interestingly, both meanings relate to something a person can possess.


Today we might say that a person has a musical talent or a performing arts talent or that he or she is a talented athlete. I’m sure most of you reading this would agree these skills are gifts given by God. Tis means that what we do with our talents is a matter of stewardship. Do we work with all our might to use these gifts as God intended (Ecclesiastes 9:10)?


We can use our talents as a platform to do many great works. Many talented people have used their platforms to help starving children, abused women, homeless people, or other disenfranchised groups. Christian athletic celebrities have been an inspiring example of using a talent’s platform to give glory back to the Talent-Giver. I think of the Philadelphia Eagles football team after their Super Bowl win this year. Right after the win, MVP Quarterback Nick Foles said, “All glory to God.” Head coach Doug Pederson said, “I can only give the praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving me this opportunity.”


excuse that they don’t want to be foolish with God’s money. Te pitfall of ‘burying talents’ is satisfying a heart that doesn’t trust God to provide for our needs. In the parable of the minas (or talents), Christ declares the one who buried his talent as a “wicked and slothful servant” (Matthew 25:14-30).


An unexpected benefit of possessing talents (whether financial ‘coins’ or skills in any area of gifting) is to demonstrate Godly forgiveness. I hope we already understand that God does not want us to be in debt. “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). Knowing this, how can we use another’s debt to us as an opportunity to show the love of Christ?


Our finances can speak louder than any words we


could articulate about where our treasure is.


Howard Dayton, co-founder of Crown Ministries said, “Te family checkbook is the story of our lives.” Our finances can either speak louder than any words we could articulate about where our treasure is, or our finances can cloud and damage our testimony regarding how we use our God-given talents—the word used in this case to mean coins, a unit of measuring money as it was in biblical times. How might people see God as the giver in our family “checkbook”? How might we actually be portraying God incorrectly through our financial decisions?


• Hoarding talents/wealth. Christians may make excuses, saying we need to be savers because we don’t know what tomorrow may bring. I challenge you, though, to carefully test your heart to make sure we aren’t doing it because we don’t trust God to provide. In that case, the money has become our idol, our god. (Luke 12:13-21).


• Burying talents/wealth. Tis happens too frequently out of fear. We don’t invest the talents we’ve been given so more good work can be done. Many times, Christians make the


In Matthew 18:21-35, in response to Peter asking how many times to forgive his brother, Jesus replies, “I do not say seven times but seventy-seven times.” Ten our Savior told a parable of a king who forgave a servant who owed him ten thousand talents. Te king was going to take his family as a payback on the debt until the servant begged him for forgiveness. To understand the magnitude of this, we need to understand that in New Testament times, a talent was equivalent to about 20 years’ wages for a laborer. Today, a talent would equal $600,000! Hence, ten thousand talents hyperbolically represents an incalculable debt: in today’s terms, about $6 billion*. As you may recall, the servant who was just forgiven this unimaginable debt then went after a man who owed him a small amount, demanding this man pay him back. When he could not, the servant had the man thrown in prison. When the king heard this, his mercy was replaced by justice,


and he had the servant thrown into prison until he was able to pay back his entire debt.


I have personally had someone forgive me for a debt I owed, and it was a beautifully humbling experience to feel the love of that individual. You may even have the opportunity to do this yourself: to “bless forward” as others have blessed you. It is important to see that this parable—and your opportunity to extend forgiveness—is about a person in need, not a person in a business transaction.


Te incalculable debt in the parable Jesus told represents the great debt of our sin. We can never repay Jesus for what He did—ever. If He paid such a great gift for us, how much more should we forgive the small debts of others? Our challenge in a world of unparalleled sports talent, mind-blowing artistic talent, and heavenly musical talent is to put our minds and our hearts in proper relation to the financial ‘talents,’ knowing everything we possess is from the great Talent-Giver.


* NIV ESV study notes, publisher Crossway ambassadoradvisors.com • 13


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