Common property

So today's topic is talents. This warms my heart, as I had so much fun researching gifts of the spirit, and this is like the sequel to a great book. Sadly, I finished the topic in one day. There is very deep stuff here, and I feel like I'm guessing as to what is really going on in these verses. Nevertheless, my calling is to read and to write. It doesn't matter that my writing lacks perfect depth - what matters is that I do what I can do.

There are three sections to this, and all are deep. I'm going to start in Doctrine and Covenants 82:18. "And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord's storehouse to become the common property of the whole church"

I see things, just for a glimpse, from the Lord's perspective. He doesn't necessarily provide me with gifts just so I can develop myself, though that is a nice side effect perhaps. He provides me with gifts so I can develop them to a point where I can use them to lift others. To serve his children. The lifting me part comes not from having the gift, but from the service and lifting I can do when I use the gift. The gift is a shovel. The holes I can dig for others with it are the purpose.

This is a new headline for me. I've been developing these gifts that I've discovered in myself: the gift of Aaron being one of them. I had thought that if I just developed them and made them as precise and polished as possible, that I could be prepared to stand in front of the Lord and successfully report on my stewardship for those talents. Not so. I learn now that the measure is not how well I developed the gift, it's about how well I used it to benefit others.

And it tells me something about this blog. I had been concerned that publishing it to the world would change things. It might feel like serving myself as I attempt to gain a large audience. It might feel like I'm trying to elevate me. One thought was that maybe I just let it lie in a corner and keep writing. Thoughts occurred to me that my fears and motivations might result in a change in the writing if I knew a group was reading it.

But the purpose of the writing is to serve. Service doesn't happen if nobody reads it - that in itself would be hiding my candle under a bushel, but in a very different way than not writing at all.

It's gotta be published. It's gotta be "out there". I will have to be subject to the scrutiny of those who only wish to spill their poison on it. There will be ridicule, and it will be directed at me. I understand that I must accept this in order to serve. So. Guess I'll let people know. Here goes something.