THE TALENT EXCUSE

This is probably the most classic. People were brought up with the belief that ability is more a product of talent than it is of training, especially in those areas that seem to require artistic or intellectual potential.

I find it odd though that we do not seem to think that you have to be talented to be a student — you know, before you can go to normal academic schools.

Everybody who can afford a car seems to think you can just go and take a driver's license without having to be talented for driving. You can also just go and get married without having to be talented for marriage — but you have to be talented to sing.

Among these, are those who claim that it is a divine order, where if "…God has determined your singing fate," there is nothing you can do about it. I was told the same thing — "…God had pre-determined." Well that cannot be true because if God had decided, I would not have made it this far. I could not have succeeded against God no matter how crafty I was. That for me rules out the possibility that God had decided that I was not supposed to be able to sing, which is what everybody thought.

88 those perceived to know little or nothing

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Then there is the classic tendency where arguments are based on the Book of Matthew⁸⁹ to excuse one from having to do anything about one's singing — claiming that it is up to God. Let us look at that passage from the Bible and see what is says:

MATTHEW 25:15 (LITV)⁹⁰

And to one indeed he gave five talents, and to another, two, and to another, one, to each ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY. And he went abroad at once.

The word talent is the real cause of the confusion. People immediately say, "There you have it; God has to give it to you!"

Look at what the Bible says further on about the same talent. Actually, if talent is singing, we might as well rephrase it for the sake of clarity: "And to one indeed he gave five talents of SINGING, and to another, two, and to another, one, to each ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY. And he went abroad at once."

Does it make sense? The talents he gave them were numerable, per individual. You cannot argue and say the number property is representative of quality instead of quantity, because then the whole parable will have to be representative. That is to say, the talent will also have to represent something other than talent, because we would be regarding everything as a type of another.

Furthermore, if you think about it, how could he have given them the talent of singing according to their own ability, if the talent was the ability to sing? It would mean that he gave them according to what they already possessed — and that would take the talent excuse away anyway; because I will suddenly think, that if you increase your ability to sing, you will receive more talent accordingly, because it is given to you according to YOUR OWN ABILITY.

I hear someone saying, "Michael⁹¹, you are taking it too far." However, if you read on, you will begin to realize that the Bible is not talking about singing talents as we know them. A talent cannot be 'taken to the bank' — which means it must have been something monetary and not musical.

In fact, if you look at the subsequent passage, the master calls it my money. I must be right to think that these talents were money and not divine ability to sing, as some will have us believe.

"But Michael, this is a parable, and surely you should know that!"

Yes I do, but I also know that a parable is either fully a parable or not at all. Parables are never part typed and part actual.

MATTHEW 25:17

Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

Remember also that the Greek word (New Testament period) for talent in this passage actually means 'a sum of money weighing a talent and varying in different states and according to the changes in the laws regulating currency.' We assume here that the

89 first book in the New Testament of the Bible

90 Literal Translation of the Holy Bible

91 reference to the author

talent referred to is an Attic⁹² talent, which was equal to 60 Attic minae or 6000 drachmae.⁹³

Depending on the metal, a talent of silver in Israel weighed about 45 kg, while in gold it weighed about 91 kg — the same measurement may have been the equivalent in Israel and Greece.

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Does the Bible speak about special gifts that God gives to man? Yes, of course! Look in the book of Acts.

ACTS 8:20

But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

Now if you check the Greek word for gift you will realize that God can give special abilities if he chooses. The synonymous Greek word is doma and it refers to what God confers as a possessor of all things.

"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (1 Peter 4:11).

All you have to really do is look at Daniel's situation and you will understand that about God — and in all occurrences, God's gifts are directly related to His plan.

DANIEL 1:17

As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

God's Gifts Are For All

I fully believe that. The real point I am making is that, the Bible tells us that God gives gifts, and it never tells us that He refuses people gifts. So, if you have an argument that it is God who gives gifts — you are right as well, but then what makes you think that He refuses people gifts such as singing? Actually, the opposite is true.

PSALM 84:11

For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Believe me, God is not against you at all. God is not against your singing at all. Some of you who know that God is not opposed to you gaining a talent which you were not born with might think that this section is overly extended. No — I know the frustration as I told in my story; it can stop you from even trying.

If, as you claim, God has not given you singing talent, THEN ASK HIM FOR IT. If, indeed, you were not born with it, then just ASK HIM FOR IT. If singing requires some special inherent ability not present in all of us, what is keeping you from just ASKING HIM FOR IT?

92 ATTICA was a district in central anciet Greece

93 silver coin of ancient Greece and the monetary unit of modern Greece