A talent has first of all to be discovered and recognized. It has been said that our true birthplace is the place in which we awaken to our gifts and talents. Often it takes an outsider to recognize the talent.
Just as the sun helps to bring to birth the fragrant flowers that lie hidden in the soil of the fields, so there are people who find their fulfillment in helping to unfold the talents God has deposited in others. Perhaps these are the most talented people of all.
The Russian writer, Dostoevsky, was only twenty when he wrote his first book, entitled Poor Folk. The foremost critic of the day was a man by the name of Belinsky. When Belinsky read the manuscript of the young Dostoevsky he said, “You have brought a terrible truth to our attention. You have a great gift. Take good care of this gift, and then you will become a great writer.”
Dostoevsky was intoxicated by the words of the famous critic. Many years later he wrote, “That was the happiest moment of my entire life.”
Why was that moment so important for Dostoevsky? Because he was just awakening to his talent as a writer. He was still very unsure of himself, and therefore very vulnerable. Recognition by Belinsky confirmed him in his belief in his own talent. It did more. It launched him on his way. He spent the rest of his life expressing himself through his writings.
One of our greatest needs is the need to express ourselves. Unless we express ourselves we cannot realize or fulfill ourselves. Expression is as necessary for us as leaf and blossom are for a tree. The poet and artist, Kahlil Gibran, put it like this: “There is a great loneliness in almost everyone – a great hunger to express oneself.” And the painter Van Gogh said, “Between what I perceive and what I express there is a wall; I have spent my life trying to break down that wall.”
To express oneself is the way to make oneself whole, and therefore holy. How many of us could say that we have developed our full potential as human beings? Of course, there are many ways in which people can express themselves. Nevertheless, a lot of talent goes unexpressed. When this happens, the possessor of the talent is the greatest loser. Some people drift through life, and die having realized only a fraction of their potential.
Expression is the opposite to repression. To repress is to bottle up, to stifle, to smother, to suppress. Repression inevitably gives rise to depression. To express is to articulate, to reveal, to bring out. Expression may involve pain but it ultimately leads to joy. It is by living that we discover our talents, and it is by using them that they grow. Every talent has to be developed. Sometimes a lot of hard work, discipline, and patience are required if a talent is to bear its full fruit. We see this in the example of the first two servants in Jesus” story.
We see the opposite of it in the case of the third servant. It wasn’t the harshness of his master that prevented him from using his talent – that was merely an excuse. Nor was it lack of opportunity. He himself was to blame. Life is God’s gift to us. What we do with life is our gift to God.