On Talents And The Use Thereof

Many years ago I came up with the idea for a musical comedy about an old man having a vivid dream about God visiting him in the middle of the night and God told him that He was thinking about taking the old man’s talents away from him. That there was some question as to whether this old man had used his talents well in his lifetime. This old man had been given several special talents such as writing, and creating songs and the gift of speech and the ability to make presentations with live audiences and such. The old man is told to gather up the evidence of his accomplishments and to report at a certain theatre on a certain evening and to make his report.

The old man gathers up his best material, poems, songs, stories… oh so many stories…and he goes onstage that evening and explains to the audience that this is his trial and he will attempt to justify the good use of his talents and to convince God to let him retain his talents a bit longer. Near the end of his presentation he looks heavenward and pleas that God will let the audience’s opinion of what he had presented that evening determine his future. God agrees.

Now this question comes up: what if you were placed in that situation? No, not as a speaker or a songwriter or such but with whatever special talents you have had in your lifetime – a brick layer, a lawyer, a doctor, a farmer. Do you think you could make a good case for retaining your talents?