HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN LIFE

I don't know of an individual who has not at one time dreamed of making a big difference from where they lived.  I regard myself as like all other youngsters growing up.  Being heroic and/or successful by accomplishing very great things filled my imagination.

To give you insight, my brother and I had one Sunday shirt each for church; white, short-sleeved, wide-collared.  Simultaneously, I dreamed of being a Major League baseball star.  I was nine at the time and one of the 1956 bubble gum cards that I loved was of Roy Campanella; number 39.

Not having a uniform, I designed my own by taking a ball-point pen and drawing 39 on the back of my Sunday go-to-church shirt.  Granted it appeared very unauthentic; but it was my imaginary uniform.  And...I was proud as the imaginary crowd roared immediately upon the Public Address Announcer calling out, And no-ow batting-ing---num-um-ber 39--Terr-err--y Ru-u-sh!!!  (cheers were deafening).

Some of us, maybe most of us, never reach that stage by the means we assumed. Stardom just isn't in the cards for the most of us.  Fame seems to leak badly.  It turns out we are most ordinary and rather plain; in a good sort of way.

So how do we really make a difference in life?  We make it, not by fame, but by giving ourselves away.

In the Parable of the Talents, I believe we discover a buried secret within its wording as to how we are to make a difference in life.  It is by the simple process of giving away.

Too often our assumption is that the way we get ahead is by grasping, clinging, and hoarding.  We call it saving up.  But God has a different direction, which from experience many of us can testify He has it figured correctly.

Matthew 25:16 shines light upon the man with the five talents.  He went and traded. When he risked losing by trading away, he gained.  The same procedure is accredited to the two talent man.  The one talent?  No trade.  No risk.  No exchange.  Hid in fear of losing....and he did lose.

The way to make a difference is not to self-groom nor to accumulate.  It will always be found luxuriously in the reverse; let go, trade, risk, yield.

Oh I'm in on wanting to be the local hero, or the famed one being interviewed; but it isn't going to happen.  My job is to trust God; give Him my goods, my personality, my dreams.  He will use them as He wishes; not as I imagine.  He....so says Ephesians 3:20....will faithfully trump my imagination with His glory and creativity.

So it is for all of us.