For years I picked my girls from school and two of them (the younger ones) would usually fight for a place on the front seat next to me. :It’s not fair” the baby said when she found her sister already in the coveted seat
“And who has raised you to think that life is fair?” I asked. Life is not fair, came the chorus from the back seat. My children have all heard this from me over and over.
In the new testament Jesus told a story popularly referred to as the parable of the talents. For the benefit of those who may not be familiar with the story I will give a summary of it here.
A man went on a long journey leaving his servants with five, two and one talent each. This referred to a substantial amount of money. Not fair – don’t you agree? Why not give them all a similar amount – but remember that life isn’t fair.
Let’s ‘Kenyanise’ the story – say each talent represented a hundred thousand shillings.
The man who got the five traded them to gain another five and so did the recipient of the two. But our brother with the one talent went and hid it in the ground.
We all know what happened when the master came back. It is the man who had the most that was given even more.
But life isn’t fair – and God isn’t fair. Not by a long shot He’s not.
- Abraham was chosen unfairly. It was not fair for God to choose Abraham out of all the people in the world at the time and give him all the promises he did. We are not told of anything Abraham did to earn that favor. God just exercised His Divine Sovereignty in choosing him.
- Israel was treated unfairly – God killed people in the millions to protect His chosen people, He dispossessed Nations to give Israel a home.
- Abel was blessed unfairly – we are not given any reason why God chose Abel’s gift over Cain’s. He just did.
- Cain was to protected unfairly – even though Cain was punished severely for having killed his brother, God promised to protect, vowing to punish anyone who killed Cain.
We could go on and on giving example of how God chooses one brother over the other, in circumstances we would want to question.
But let us look inward. What has God given you that is an unfair advantage?
We all have something we have not earned – something for which we cannot take the credit. There is something you tend to do effortlessly.
Singing is not an effort for a singer, and neither is running for a runner. They have the innate ability to do these things.
And yet when you are a singer you must sing. And so too the runner, the pianist of the holder of any other talent – having a gift only means you have an obligation.
How then do you make sure you do not become the servant whose talent is taken away for redundancy?
- What do you do for free
- What do you do with your free time
- What have people complemented you for doing
A man is said to have asked the way to the Julliard school of music, to which the answer came Practice. Practice. Practice.
As we said already – when you have identified what you seem to do effortlessly, what you love to do, then you have no option but to do it
Remember it is not the most talented people who make it but the ones who make the most effort. The winner of any pageant is not the most beautiful woman in the land but the one who won among those who tried.
If you had to choose between talent and the right attitude, good attitude and effort win any day – a less qualified person is a better choice any day than a highly talented but lazy person.
This is where the highly educated often loose out! This is where your education is your undoing – no disrespect to the faculty seated here with us – I am a university graduate myself, so I mean no disrespect at all. But the academics among us tend to analyze an idea right to death!
Some of the biggest achievements of our time have been accomplished by people who were too dumb to know when to quit!
Don’t focus on what you don’t have – focus on what you have. Start small. Do not despise the days of humble beginnings.
We sometimes lose out on the whole purpose of getting an education. We do not put in all this years of learning so as to make a better employee – rather we come to learn how to think, to do things better, we come to horn our God given talents and abilities.
So if you love to paint or to sing, to cycle or to build – use your knowledge to help you do it better – but get started
Get around people with a can-do attitude, those who talk about opportunity rather than those who complain endlessly.
In my book I call it SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SUCCESS.
Make no mistake – you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. If a person not going anywhere, do not let them take you along!
We very many times loose opportunity because we ask the wrong question. Rather than ask – what do I get, it may be a good idea to ask – what can I give.
Business opportunity is often lost because we look for the money, the profit, what is in it for me.
The most successful businesses in the world were started by people were not necessarily looking to make money.