The Used Talent

While resting from a session of practice at a golf range, I watched a young man who made two excellent drives with absolutely no indication of golf form. Thinking of the scientific means through which most players achieve such distance, I continued to look on with amazement. Then it became evident that the young man's casual method was getting haphazard results. The balls were flying off at different tangents, and, out of a bucketful, only a few matched the distance of the first two. This incident illustrates what we see repeated in all departments of living—the failure to use inherent abilities intelligently.

Christian Science shows that any true talent is an expression of the infinite, divine intelligence and is therefore free from the false sense of a personal endowment with all its limitations and frustrations. The Bible says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17 ). These perfect gifts are not humanly seen in their completeness, but we demonstrate them in ever increasing degree through the understanding and practice of the Science of man's being.

The young Christian Scientist who is trying to determine the nature of his abilities and to find his place in the world can be spared uncertainties and mistakes if he will recognize the true source of talent and seek the means of developing it under divine guidance. When one acknowledges that God, the one perfect Mind, is man's Mind, thought becomes more alert and expansive, and human skills and modes of expression are understood better and practiced with increasing freedom.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 160 ), "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science."

If one should be beset by a sense of frustration, he should adhere all the more steadfastly to the truth of his spiritual reflection of infinite power and ability. He must refuse to attribute his failures to other people or to outside conditions and must look upon trials and problems as opportunities to understand more fully his relationship to God. Demonstration in Christian Science is always liberation from some phase of the belief that man is a limited mortal, and this spiritually mental release is seen outwardly in the improvement of known abilities and perhaps in the discovery of hidden or neglected ones.

My first glimpse of the Science of being came to me when I was a young music student. As I began to apply the unfolding truths of real being, evidences of progress and guidance appeared. Some years later another ability, which had been recognized during my school years and then forgotten, came to thought, and I began to use it persistently under Mind's inspiration and direction. As a result of using my God-given talents as we are taught in Christian Science, I have been able to demonstrate supply through congenial work and to enjoy a satisfying sense of useful achievement.

But someone may say, "I'm just an ordinary sort of person and have no special abilities." God gives infinite spiritual understanding to all of His children, and we all have this supreme gift to demonstrate. This talent is of far more importance than outstanding human ability unsupported by spiritual knowledge. Everyone has proved at least a spark of understanding, and whoever cultivates it is sure to find that it increases with use and is needed in the world.

In Christ Jesus' much-loved parable of the talents, the slothful servant was rebuked not because he had only one talent, but because he failed to put it to use. Perhaps he was suffering from what is today called an inferiority complex. Or perhaps he was resentful because his fellow servants had more to start with. And from his reply there is no doubt that he was fearful and ungrateful.

Different forms of the same arguments may come to the Christian Scientist today, but he has the means of rejecting them. He can know that every thought that denies the omnipotence of God and the perfection of man is a suggestion of an erroneous mortal sense and that it is rendered powerless by the truth.

Those who cultivate and use their talents through the knowledge of man's spiritual selfhood have a sense of security and fulfillment because their accomplishments are based upon eternal truths. Since they understand something of the ever-presence and continuity of good, they can deny the beliefs of unfair competition and materialistic aims and find the right place for self-expression.

If one's abilities are not of the type the world considers glamorous, he should neither belittle them nor make false pretenses concerning abilities which are foreign to his nature. The desire for recognition of work well done is a normal desire. It is wrong only when the recognition is sought through personal vanity or at the expense of honest standards.

To practice the truths of Christian Science may not always be easy, but it is certainly rewarding. In school, business, or profession, in home life or in society, there are constant opportunities for using and increasing one's understanding of God. In the expression of his true selfhood, the young Christian Scientist finds that his talents are revealed and improved and that outward recognition is the result of his seeking God's benediction (Matt. 25:21 ), "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."