I am a woman of many talents. I can sew, I can cook, I can clean, I can write, I can make herbal medicine, I can dream, I can prophesy, I can sell, I can encourage, I can work well with others. I can do many things. In fact, I can do so many things that I often do not finish what I have started because shortly after starting something, I’m on to something else.
A few weeks back, I was looking at my saved items on the computer. I have a LOT of writings. I’ve been writing since 1976 and most of what I’ve written gets saved for later. So I started looking at them again. Each one taking me back to a place I had forgotten or vaguely remembered. It was absolutely amazing to me that I had all that tucked away in one little laptop.
Over the last few months, I’ve been recovering from foot surgery. It’s not major surgery, I know, but it has had major effects on my life. I cannot remember the last time I was off my feet for so long. I’ve only known to do things. Now my parents might have told you that I often sat on the couch when I was younger but even then, I was doing something. I was thinking or writing.
I went into my room, the little room that I was going to fix up last year but, again, I had been so busy with work and school that I barely had time to finish it up. I started it. Shelves are put up on the wall and book shelves are lined with books. I organized a curio cabinet, and some drawers. I still have a lot of “mess” on the floor that needs to find a home.
But, I could not be on my feet much, so that project will have to be put off until I could be stable again. At least it sounded like a good plan.
I wanted the Lord to say to me “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a few things, I will put you in charge of many. Enter into the joy of your Master.” I was recently put in the position of project manager of our up and coming (w)holistic addiction recovery group (or W.A.R.). I like the sound of that. When I go to the meeting I get to say I’m going to W.A.R. and I’m going to the W.A.R. Room. I felt like that was a kind of well done… yet… I don’t know why I’d get a well done… my business ended abruptly due to the foot surgery, I don’t have a thriving nutrition business, I can’t walk, I cant afford liability insurance for product making, and I thought “What did I do to get a well done?”
One day, I was feeling stuck. I can’t explain stuck, except just stuck. Like my feet were stuck in tar. I couldn’t just get up and do anything. I was stuck. So I started looking through my kindle collection of all the books I’ve saved…. it was amazing how many books I have on kindle and in my room. I have not read most of them but I buy them “just in case I have time to read them.” Well that had to change because now I had all the time in the world.
I decided to start with the shortest books first and at least devote a few hours a day to reading. One book, Given to Forgive, by Cheryl Stasinowski, popped out at me. Did I want to read another book on forgiveness? Yes. I wanted to read the book by Cheryl since I’ve known her for a long time. It was also a short book. And I’m quite certain I don’t know everything there is to know on the subject.
As I started to read, my eyes became like a waterfall. I actually was surprised that something was being dug up in me on forgiveness. Did I have to forgive anyone? I didn’t think I needed to. Yet person after person came to my thoughts as I read all the way through. How do you like that? I didn’t even realize it because I had buried the thoughts of whatever it was they did to me oh so long ago.
One by one, these people from my past flashed before my watery eyes and I had to say I forgave them and released them back to the Lord. That was good. I didn’t know I had stress from holding onto them but our body holds on and it causes stress.
I had enrolled in a class on making body butters and creams last year. It was a hard class because it was not just about making a product. It was about understanding the components and constituents of every oil and butter out there and knowing its properties and their applications. It would make me fall asleep. The class was a go-at-your-own-pace class so I kind of ended up putting it off, shoving it out of the way like I did most things when I found something more interesting to do. After all, a woman of many talents and a lot of curiosity has no time for boredom. I had paid for this class however, and it was only good for one year. That year end was coming up on February 1 and I needed to take 2 tests, make 3 products and write a term paper in order to get certified.
So, that is what I did. Each day, I focused on making finishing this class a priority. Today, I finished that class and await my certification.
I also pulled out a manuscript that I began in January 2014. It was about harmful chemicals that creep into our tap water, food and household products. There was so much work that needed to be done if it were to be completed. Today, January 9, marks the 2nd anniversary of the chemical spill in Charleston, WV, which was the idea behind my writing the book. In a few days it will be two years since I began it. I started working on it to bring it to completion. In a few days, the anniversary of when it began, is when it will be ready for publication.
I could feel it. I could feel I was getting unstuck. Starting with forgiveness. I had buried all those people and it was causing a traffic jam of energy inside me. And then, I completed my class. And then, I completed the book.
Little by little, the traffic jam that was causing stress inside (evidenced by a blood test revealing my body to be 80% acidic causing metabolic acidosis) was moving again. Roadblocks were removed. My body’s ph for the last few days has been alkaline, not acidic. The ph tape used to show up, morning after morning and night after night, yellow. Now, every other day it is green. (Yellow for caution and green for go?)
I went back to the scripture verse in Matthew where the Lord says “Well done”..
Matthew 25: 14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done,good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.28 Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Friends, we’ve always read this as money. But this says talents.
Burying your talents in the sand, or in my case, my writings in the computer, or people needing my forgiveness, causes us to be stuck in a traffic jam that produces stress, that produces illness and eventually disease (Dis-Ease). There can be no joy when you are burying what God has given you.
You have been given 1000 or more talents to do something with. Don’t be concerned about who will see them or where you will put them. Just do something. If you don’t do anything, you will be stuck and it will take an enormous amount of energy to get unstuck. You may lose your joy, you may become ill and you won’t know why. You’ll keep asking for prayer over this and not understand why God is not responding to your prayer when the answer is that you have buried your talents. Or your hurts.
Burying them is equal to being an unprofitable servant. How can you be profitable if you are stuck?
If you want to hear Well Done good and faithful servant, it won’t be because of all the wonderful things you have done or the great person you are. It will be about what have you done with what you have been given. If you know God has given you something, don’t bury it and do some other good thing and think God is pleased.
Keep a short account with Him. He is pleased with you finishing what you have started and getting your head out of the sand.
