October 19, 2006

Sitting on Your Talent


There was a man played piano in a bar. He was a good piano player. People came out just to hear him play. But one night, a patron told him he didn't want to hear him just play anymore. He wanted him to sing a song.

The man said, "I don't sing."

But the customer was persistent. He told the bartender, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that guy to sing!"

The bartender shouted across the room, "Hey buddy! If you want to get paid, sing a song. The patrons are asking you to sing!"

So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the very first time. And nobody had ever heard the song Mona, Mona Lisa sung the way it was sung that night by Nat King Cole!

He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar, but because he had to sing, he went on to become one of the best-known entertainers in America.

You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not feel as if your "talent" is particularly great, but it may be better than you think! And with persistence, most skills can be improved. Besides, you may as well have no ability at all if you sit on whatever talent you possess! The better question is not "What ability do I have that is useful?" It is rather "How will I use whatever ability I have?"

October 17, 2006

My dad comes in my office this morning filled with frustration over the problems of the world, the lack of compassion, the hunger, the death, the cruelty, the government. I tried my best to use good Christian reasoning... that this life is just a drop in the bucket, that eternity is what its all about. Well he got frustrated and said that from that perspective this world is nothing but an incubator, and if that's all it is that cheapens this life too much.

At first I got frustrated, but after I started thinking about it, I love the analogy, and not just because my wife is pregnant.

an incubator, something that warms the baby chicks until they are ready to emerge to life.

an incubator. a womb.

a womb is dark…it's cramped.
in a womb you depend on an umbilical cord for nourishment, and you can't control how much or what you get
your body is very fragile and has extreme limitations
you don't understand what's going on
you think you are completely alone
you can hear, but don't know what is being said
all you know is this strange confined world you live in

you don't know why the world keeps rolling over in the middle of the night and spinning you over,
why you keep getting poked, but for the most part you are comfortable and happy with your existence.

but then your short time in the incubator comes to a horrific end

birth is as a traumatic and painful experience as it gets for both mother and child.
the pain, the crying, the goo, the screaming
you are squeezed out of everything you knew and ripped from what gave you life.
your nourishment is cut off.

but then...
then what comes next is beyond your wildest imagination!

you find out you weren't alone
you see the light
you understand the voices
you are brought to life!

and through all this the dad looks on proudly.
you see he picked the mom... the deliverer, if you will
and along with that mom he made you.

so this life is an incubator
where we develop and grow...
....and get ready for life


born again. huh, how about that!