Reserves

When I was much younger, I remember attending a Church camp in the mountains of central Idaho.  One night around the bonfire, all of us there were told we had the “seeds of greatness” within us.

At the end of the week, we all returned home with an inflated sense of self, knowing that when we grew up we would truly change the world.  All we had to do was nurture those seeds of greatness.

As I grew older, I realized that what I wanted to do conflicted with what I was capable or able to do.  Reality impinged on my nicely crafted fantasy of what I was going to remake the world into.  Those seeds of greatness started to shrivel.

Now that I am way past middle age (meaning I have a receding hairline, trifocals, and I constantly fight the battle with girth), I have looked back on my life and wondered if I didn’t kill those seeds.  After all, I’m pretty sure I never lived up to the expectation that they had of me.

It was last week on a very long drive on a very straight, level, and boring highway, that I gave up on the satellite radio and decided to mull over this topic again.  Have I simply wasted the talents and abilities that I know I have.  Sure I learn a lot of knew and neat things and have developed all kinds of skills.  I just never seem to use any of them for anything “great.”  Have I simply relegated myself to a life of mediocrity?

Maybe I have been selling myself short.  Maybe a lot of people have.  I can’t be the only one who has looked back and thought that during the very short time I’ve been on this Earth I did not reach my full potential; somehow I let slip by what could have been.  Or have I?  Have you?

It occurs to me that all of us have interests and talents that we develop, practice and nurture, but never use for anything “great.”  That doesn’t make them any less valuable, if nothing else than it makes us a little more interesting, or depending on the skill and the person, “quirky.”

I also find it interesting that throughout history, whenever times have been harsh and humanity has slithered into the darkness, someone always steps forward, as if by divine providence, and with their skills and abilities helped plot a course through mire.  Think of Abraham Lincoln; an unlikely President with a high pitch voice and Kentucky drawl – who piloted our country through the darkest time in our history.

Where would we be as a people without the likes of George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams or Martin Luther King?  All ordinary people who stepped forward when needed, and without using words stated in their actions “here I am, use me.”

Perhaps our underutilized abilities and talents simply are maintained in reserve.  Maybe never to be used for anything “great” our entire life, or maybe, just maybe one day to be used when we must stand up and say, “here I am, use me.”

So I think those seeds of greatness have actually taken root, and grown, and we use them every single day.  Our talents and abilities do not gain us fame or fortune, but we use them for the benefit of our neighbors, friends, and family.  Those seeds have grown into mighty trees.  Not visible to most, but there none the less, waiting in reserve.