(The cover photo is the Sacred Heart of Jesus shrine in Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines. The giant statue sits atop a hill and is a landmark for people to visit. I was fortunate to visit the statue earlier this year during my trip to the Philippines.)
He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’
His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.” (Matthew 25:21)
The gospel readings for this past week struck a chord with me. The gospel tells the story about a master who gave his servants talents to use. One servant received five talents, another received two talents, and another received one talent. The servant who received five talents used his talents, and gained five more. The servant who received two talents also used his talents, and gained two more. However, the servant who received one talent hid the talent he had received by burying it in the ground.
Each time I reflect on Bible verses in church, I am amazed to learn new perspectives that either confirm that I am heading in the right direction or contradict closely-held beliefs that cause me to pause, reflect, and then decide what action to take next. For this particular reading, the parable refers to the talents we are blessed with. Those talents can be physical gifts, spiritual gifts, or personality gifts that bring joy and breathe life to people’s days.
Growing up, I was told that I am a gifted writer. My aunt who babysitted me after school while I was in elementary school told me that I wrote really well after she found my essay in the trash can. My mother kept a journal entry from seventeen years ago about my trip to the Philippines that she reminds me every now and then. My spiritual mentor, whom I am proud to call my surrogate parent, encouraged me to continue writing after my Life In the Spirit Seminar1 was finished. My cousin-in-law and mother even encouraged me to write a book.
Those signs encouraged me to start and continue writing for the Noy Sauce blog. To be honest, writing would be one of my passions if money was not a factor. While there were many ups and downs the past two years, my level of dedication towards writing was dictated by how people would react. If I just got enough “likes”, my motivation to write would be increased. However, if I hardly received any “likes”, I would stop writing for a couple of months until a life event, or the Holy Spirit, compelled me to.
Last week, I published my greatest work (in my opinion, so far) on my failed journey to business school. At first, I had reservations on publishing it, let alone sharing something personal. After some encouragement from a trusted person, I later realize that it does not matter who reads my works. Whether I have zero or five fans of my work, the important thing is I took the leap of faith in publishing it. Before this realization, I was no different than the servant who buried his talent in the ground.
In this world today, where instant gratification takes precedence over process, we, including myself, tend to glorify success on a pedestal and fail to realize the sweat and tears that led to that success. Deep down, many of us are conscious about other people’s opinions that we surrender our power to them. Our self-esteem is dictated by their opinions. Yet, surrendering our power to others logically makes no sense.
One analogy that recently struck me is a light that shines on a porch late at night. Regardless of whether people, flies, or insects come near the light, the important thing is that the light does its job by brightening the porch in the darkness. It makes no sense that the people, flies, or the insects that come near the light take away the light once they leave the porch. People are free to come and go in our lives, and if they do go, which happens at least 80% of the time, they are not taking anything away from you. In my case, it was writing for the sake of writing. Realizing that the power was always and has always been inside me felt empowering, because I have been set free from holding myself to a certain expectation.
From personal experience, taking a few deep breaths and expressing gratitude throughout the course of the day helps bring me back to the present. Taking deep breaths lowers our blood pressure, clearing out the pollution of negative thoughts in our mind. Expressing gratitude shifts our mindsets to think in abundance, rather than in scarcity. We often think in scarcity because of our tendency to compare ourselves with others. At times, my thoughts of scarcity may hilariously wander into something like:
Seriously, he’s married to that pretty lady? Pssshhh…I wonder what I’m doing wrong with my life…
He has that prestigious job?! He’s nothing special. I am sure he cheated his way to get there…
However, none of those thoughts of comparing ourselves to others matter in the end. What matters is whether we persevered, let alone tried, in sharing our gifts to make lasting, positive impacts to those around us. We only have a right to use our gifts, not the rewards that may or may not come as a result of using our gifts. Like the servants who shared their talents, they received more talents once they demonstrated the willingness to share their talents and the perseverance to not get discouraged in their own trials. Success begets increased expectations and responsibility. With perseverance through the inevitable challenges comes growth, or as what I like to call, a real-life “achievement” (not those fakeypants achievements one gets from playing video games). And as children of God, isn’t growth something worth pouring our hearts and souls into?
To end this post, I’d like to share the chorus of a dear song to me from the past few months.
The song is called “We Are” by Kari Jobe:
“We are the light of the world,
We are the city on a hill,
We are the light of the world,
We gotta, we gotta, we gotta let the light shine.”
1 The Life in the Spirit Seminar (also known as LSS) is an event that brings one closer to his/her faith. There is a six-week preparation, in which one is paired with a Spiritual mentor to share their journey in faith. While many people who go through this program think that this marks the end of their Spiritual journey and time in community, it is in fact, only the beginning.