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ACCOUNTANTS OF LIFE



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©)

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