In one of his teachings, the greatest yet the humblest teacher that ever toured the earth told a story of a rich man who embarked on an extended journey. He summoned three of his servants and entrusted them with his possession. To one he gave five talents, another three talents and the other two talents. The first two swung into action and invested their talents and they doubled it before the arrival of their master, but the last one simply dug the ground and hid his. After a long time, the master returned and called them to give an account of what they have done with the entrusted treasures. From what they all did, you can’t but imagine the outcome of the account settling.
I
was conversing with one of my friends two years ago, and she asked me a
question that got me into deep thinking over life generally; she asked me thus:
“what is it with people and accountability?” she further said “why do people
hate the word ‘accountability’ especially when it comes to money? Immediately my
mind went back to the short story given above, after considerable meditation
and observation, I came to understand that truly, innately people love to be
trusted with responsibilities, love to enjoy the several benefits that come
with the responsibilities, yet not everybody loves to be accountable for such
responsibilities.
Accountability
stems from the word account; according to Encarta Dictionaries, account is a written
or spoken report of something. It also means an explanation of something that
has happened, especially one given to somebody in authority. Ordinarily, one
can only associate accountability with finance and money, or with accountants
and other financial officers, but it will be myopic and shallow to straight
jacket accountability only to finance or money related fields as life entirely
deserves bit by bit accountability.
Just
like the three servants of the rich man in our initial anecdote, we all are
accountants of life; entrusted with different, unique special yet equally
important talents, gifts, treasures, capabilities and abilities. From day one
of our life till our final breath, we are meant and expected to swing into
action, investing all that God has freely given us in the way we can do best. Thus,
it doesn’t matter what kind of talent you have, all that count is what you do
with it. As accountants of life therefore, we are all expected to be
accountable in all spheres of our life. Being accountable in life entails
living a life that you won’t be ashamed to recount the details whenever and wherever
you are called upon. Being accountable is living your life with the awareness
that life is ephemeral and the master can arrive any moment to call you into
account settlement.
It
is unfortunate that most people today are behaving like that last servant who simply
and carelessly dug the ground and hid his talents. Could it be that he
underrated his talents? Or could it be that he didn’t see the need to invest it? Well
if you are like this man, just know that no talent, gift, ability, capability
given by God is superior or inferior, they are all equally important in their special
ways; none is head or tail because they all need each other. Have you
discovered that God given talent in you? Can you say you have been investing
it? When it comes to investment, invest in people’s lives; and when you invest,
aim for influence, effect and impact, monetary gain should not be the pivotal
driving force.
Life is short and time is running out, your life is
a trust and it can be taken away from you any moment, and you will be required
to give a statement of account. If you believe that God is the giver of life
and all that you can have in and do with this life, then you are accountable to
Him, and if you are accountable to Him then you are an accountant of life. He requires
accountability from the most little detail to the biggest issue of your life.
If only we all know that our life is an investment and we are accountable to
God, we will work toward becoming trustworthy, faithful and profitable
accountants, ever ready to give account of our lives before Him. “Sooner or later we'll all have to face God, regardless of
our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a
result of our actions, either good or bad” 2
Corinthians 5:10 (Guteng 2016©)
Please be free to leave your comments, Thank You
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