TODAY it is generally admitted that one's progress should be gauged not by a comparison of his work with that of another, but by what he himself has done. The tendency to recognize honest effort serves not only to discourage such undesirable qualities as envy, jealousy, false pride, self-pity, self-righteousness, and self-condemnation, but. also to inspire the individual to strive diligently for greater development.
This view is in accordance with Jesus' parable of the talents. Herein no discrimination was made between the individual who received five talents and the one who had only two. Each had used his abilities to the utmost, and as a result each was commended for his faithfulness and made "ruler over many things." Only the servant who did not avail himself of his blessings, who buried his talent in the ground, was upbraided as "wicked and slothful," and failed to receive added responsibility and joy. From the story the lesson is clear that the reward of faithful service is additional responsibilities.
Since God is omnipotent, omniactive good, and since spiritual man is His image or expression, all talents, all blessings, are in and of God, and are man's through reflection. To use our God-given talents, then, is to draw upon the inexhaustible source of all goodness, and thus experience inevitable progress. On the other hand, to fail to use them is, in belief, to cut ourselves off from God's infinite blessings.
