When the Gift Would Not Stay Buried

 

 " Some gifts don’t disappear when we ignore them. They wait." ~ Shane Bryant

 

Collect

Giver of every good and perfect gift,

forgive us for the talents we have buried

out of fear, ambition, distraction, or pride.

In this Lenten season of return and repentance,

awaken what You planted in us long ago.

Give us courage to steward what is holy.

Through Christ our Lord,

Amen.

 

Scripture Lessons

Old Testament

Book of Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…”

Psalm

Book of Psalms 139:13–14

“For You formed my inward parts… I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Gospel

Gospel of Matthew 25:14–30

(The Parable of the Talents)

Epistle

First Epistle to the Corinthians 12:4–7

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit…”

 

Devotional Reading

     I am not talented on my own. Whatever gift I have as a writer is exactly that — a gift. When I was young, I knew I wanted to write. Fiction novels, song lyrics, sermons, devotionals, words that stirred something deep. I am not a composer. I cannot orchestrate symphonies, but I love writing poetry  and lyrics for songs. I write what I feel. I hear a melody in my spirit and sing it plainly. Others — even technology — may build the arrangement around it.

     But the words? The vision? The characters that walk and speak in my imagination as if they are alive? That is something I cannot manufacture. It is a creative gift I have been given. Yet for nearly twenty-nine years, I set it aside. I chose sales. Marketing. Production. Performance. Success measured in numbers. It was honorable work — but it was not my calling.

     In January 2025, during a season of fasting and prayer for physical healing, something shifted. My health was declining. Work grew chaotic. Pressure mounted. It felt like everything was unraveling.

But beneath the unraveling was a whisper:

“You are not where you belong.”

     By March, I began writing 40 Days With God: A Vertical Journey. I helped start a fellowship class at church. I finished a song I had begun more than twenty years earlier, "Heavenly Stream" Then came more songs. More devotionals. Five novels begun. Eight planned. It was as if a floodgate opened.

     When I sought the Kingdom first, Heaven responded. The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 unsettles me. The servant who buried his gift wasn’t condemned for failure. He was rebuked for fear. For hiding what had been entrusted to him.

Lent is not just about confessing sin.

     Sometimes it is about confessing avoidance. What have we buried because it felt inconvenient? Because it didn’t seem practical? Because it might disrupt the life we built?Psalm 139 declares we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” That includes wiring. Inclinations. Creative impulses. Holy restlessness.

Spiritual gifts do not disappear because we delay them.

They wait.

And when we finally surrender, they flood.

 

Another Story

     Blind from infancy, hymn writer Fanny Crosby composed more than 8,000 hymns, including the beloved Blessed Assurance, To God Be the Glory, and Rescue the Perishing. Crosby often described spending long hours in prayer and meditation before writing. Though physically blind, she spoke of seeing spiritual truths vividly. Her goal was to win a million souls to Christ through her hymns.¹

     What the world might have called limitation became multiplication. Her gift did not depend on her eyesight. It depended on her surrender.

 

Lenten Reflection

Lent strips away illusion.

It confronts not only our sins — but our neglected callings.

Have you buried something sacred inside you?

A song?

A ministry?

A book?

A compassion you keep suppressing?

Sometimes God allows discomfort to redirect us.

Sometimes chaos is not attack — it is awakening.

When I began seeking God’s Kingdom first, what had lain dormant did not slowly trickle out.

It poured.

 

Charge

Ask yourself honestly:

What gift have I buried?

Where have I chosen safety over calling?

     This week, enter prayer and fasting not only for forgiveness — but for activation. Unearth the talent. Dust it off. Steward it faithfully. The Spirit still gives gifts. The question is not whether you have one. The question is whether you will use it.

Closing Prayer

Holy Spirit, You are the giver of gifts.

Forgive us for burying what You entrusted to us.

Awaken dormant dreams. Restore holy imagination.

Give us courage to create, to speak, to write, to serve.

Not for applause.

Not for ambition.

But for Your glory.

Let what You planted

bear fruit in its season. Amen.

Footnote

Historical accounts of Fanny Crosby’s devotional practices and prolific hymn writing are widely documented in biographies and hymn histories of the 19th century.