The other day I put a new bulb in my bathroom. When the light bulb burned out we were out of new bulbs and I had to wait til the next day to get that new, oddly- bluish light. Night time excursions required an open door, and a watchful eye, and I appreciated the light in the way you do things you normally take for granted.
It brought to mind Jesus talking about how you don't light a lamp and then hide it from view. In those days they never took light for granted the way we do. The idea of lighting a lamp and then wasting the light was laughable; silly; absurd.
You have also heard the parable of the talents. The master gave the first man five bags of gold, the second man two bags, and the third man one bag. The first two doubled the money and returned to the master twice what he had left them with. The third man was afraid and hid the gold and returned it to the master exactly as he had left it and the master was angry about it.
Every one of us is given gifts. God lights our lights. It sure seems that some people are given five bags of gold to my one lonely bag! But each of us has the gifts God gave us on the day we were born. Some people are musicians. They are born that way. Some are artists, and from a young age they draw and paint on everything in sight. Some are dancers and are graceful and fluid in their movements. Some are born mathematicians, or naturally hospitable. Some people have a gift of joy or can build anything. Some have many gifts and some have only one.
Something I have noticed, especially among the women in my life in all the various places and walks of life, is a tendency to be afraid and want to hide their light under a bushel; to want to bury their gold to protect it. This tendency is not just women of course, some men too. But in our culture women especially feel embarrassed by their talents and gifts. It seems that they think it is bragging and boastful to be upfront about what God has given them. No one thinks that a woman with a beautiful singing voice is boastful if she sings for others to enjoy. But if your gift is leading, it is somehow felt to be bragging to discuss it and openly search for opportunities to use your gifts. Or what if you have a gifted mind? How can you share your gift without appearing to be a braggart?
It seems that the more important the gift is to us and the more gifted we are, the more vulnerable we are in sharing the information since often there has been one or more *someones* who have made us feel embarrassed to think we could have an important gift from God.
So we hide our gift. We tuck it into a safe place, thinking that it can't really be a gift because why would God give it to such a person? God wants us to develop our gifts. He wants us to use them and grow them and increase what He gave us. He wants us to return more to Him than he gave us.
I can't draw a stick figure, and I can't sing a note. I am not a dancer or a musician or a great writer. But God gifted each of us. He gifted me and He gifted you. He gave you stewardship over a precious bag of gold, or two or five, and He wants you to multiply it. He wants you to not be embarrassed by the gifts He chose for you. Are you able to make a beautiful garden? I can't. Can you carve wood into shapes that it never had knew before? I can't. Can you sing a lullaby to your baby? I can't. Can you see and make sense of numbers to make them show you secrets? I can't.
I need your gifts. I am less whole unless you share the gifts God put inside you. I need your beautiful gardens, and paintings. I need your music and your bridges. I will offer you my gifts, and share with you without shame or embarrassment. Because I know that you need my gifts as much as I need yours.
God didn't light your lamp so that the light could be hidden.
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