Now Make the Most of It!

Somewhere the story is told of a talented girl who was not doing enough with the gifts and talents she had been given, and under some urgent impulse her mother one day impatiently shook her and said: “I’ve given you life. Now you do something with it!”

We could conceive of the Father of us all saying about the same: “I’ve given you life. Now make the most of it!” I’ve given you time, opportunity, talent, intelligence, the good earth and all it offers – now use it, do something with it! This brings to mind a line from Longfellow not often heard or said these days, but much full of meaning: “We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.”

One of the most wasteful wastes in the world is the waste of time, of talent, of opportunity, of creative effort – indifference to development, indifference to learning, indifference to work – the don’t-care, drop-out, what’s-the-use attitude.

There are times for preparation, and times for serious, responsible performance, and we had better be finding direction, finding ourselves, and moving forward, avoiding indifferent drifting or wasteful delay in using the priceless abilities and opportunities God has Given.

One of the steadying factors in this broad and blessed land, and in the lives of each and all of us – one that would reduce restlessness and discontent – would be for all or us to commit ourselves to use the best of our abilities in more useful ways, perhaps with a sense that the Father of us all might somehow, sometime shake us, and unforgettably say: “I have given you life. Now, make the most of it!”