Emphasis Preaching Journal

A thirty-year-old doctor in Quincy, Illinois -- Dr. Michael Swango -- was said to have had a fascination with death that led him to administer poison to a number of his co-workers. When he was convicted of lacing their snacks with arsenic, the judge gave him a lecture, saying, "You have clearly performed evil deeds."

Then the judge zeroed in on the main disappointment in the case by saying, "It is indeed a sad day when you have the mind and the intellect to do great deeds," but you fail to live up to your potential. The doctor had served doughnuts, tea, and soda to his co-workers while employed as a paramedic on an ambulance unit. None of the victims had died, but it was, nevertheless, a gross perversion of talent that might have been used for the common good.

Saint Paul says that the many gifts God's people possess are given for the benefit of others. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." While we are not guilty of the kind of waste and perversion we see in the doctor, one wonders how many gifts are squandered through nonuse and hoarding. The gifts we're given are many and varied. May they always be used for the benefit of others.