Dog Talent

At the end of last year, my dog Mola happened to save a hen that was being snatched by a hawk. It took place when we were taking it for granted by calling her ‘Mola’ because of her foolish acts. Because I felt so proud of her and marveled at her act, I shared the heroic tale whenever there was a chance. I couldn’t record the great scene because we didn’t have a video recorder, but it was such an awesome moment that still vividly remains in my mind.

My wife and kids may laugh at me to stitches, but after the incident I did a search on ‘dog talent’ on the Internet for days. If there was any agent, I wanted that person to reenact the scene so that Mola could become famous. Of course, it just became a grumble and people around me regarded me as weird once again. I collected lots of data at the time, but what impressed me the most was that I found 55,000,000 related sites on Yahoo search. All the pages I clicked on were all related to dog talent, directly or indirectly. I searched whether there were any Korean sites but out of 220,000 sites almost none of them were related to dogs but rather to churches. It was the moment to confirm that we Koreans are very religious.

As I read some of the huge amounts of resources, there was something in common in all of them. It was the explanation of Jesus’ second coming through the parable of talent in Matthew 25. In most cases, when Jesus preached using parables, he explained them in such a way that they sounded easy on the surface but were also ambiguous that the hearers needed to apply them in their own ways. But in the latter part here he didn’t do it. In this sermon, Jesus put it straight forward about how we should live (not believe) to go to heaven and how we can end up in the burning hell by speaking directly without leaving any room for misunderstanding, rather than using a parable or an illustration.

The verses 14 through 30 right before the teaching of sheep and goat draw my particular interest. Why did Jesus give one talent stingily, and drive him away to the darkness after scolding him rather than complimenting him about having not lost the original money. I received the answer for this through lots of pastors’ sermons, revival meetings and Bible studies. But what I focused on the most this time was “just one talent.” I heard all kinds of explanations from different perspectives about talent. But the truth I wanted to know, I couldn’t find exploring here and there on the Web for hours though I couldn’t go over the whole 220,000 sites.

‘Talent’ was a measurement to weigh the metal in Jesus’ times. Later it changed into the word that means money and took on a completely different meaning in the Korean-American dictionary that means “natural ability.” Nowadays, the term talent is used to refer to a person acting on TV. I wanted to investigate for what purpose Jesus used this word.

One talent of gold-though the standard of talent was different according to places at the time-weighed 20 kg to 60 kg. If standardized, it can be approximately 33 kg (75 lb). Due to the faltering economy of America and the aftereffect of Iraq invasion there’s confusion in politics, and the price of gold is going through the roof. I saw the news of the price going up over $1,000 per ounce a while ago. Let’s convert the “just one talent” to today’s money. If 76 pounds are multiplied by 16 ounce and then $ 1,000 again, it becomes about

$ 1,200,000 which is a large sum of money. I calculated again using the troy ounce measure unit but the result is not that different. The talent Jesus gave us was not “just” but an amount that we can start several businesses with. Let alone business, if we save this money in the bank we can live comfortably through its interest for the rest of our lives.

San Jose, the city where I live, is one of the places whose real estate prices are high and which are the object of safe investment. Then, most church members who live securely received at least one talent from God. I wish we could look back ourselves about what we did for God with the large sum of amount, not “just one talent.” How would I make an excuse if I stand up before God now? God invested big money in me but instead of using it well, I hid it under the ground. Even worse, I don’t return it to God but pass it to my children, causing fights among them. Or the inheritance I leave can make my child lazy, and it can result in destroying his life.

I don’t know how the search for ‘dog talent’ that started from my not so smart dog ‘Mola’s behavior was extended to the Bible. Nevertheless, thankfully, I experience that as the Bible says, those who love God are led to a good path, even through random things.

I am grateful to realize once again that my God is not the one who just gives us good things, but who gives greatly and abundantly. I believe for sure that if I use the house I have now for God’s business, He will give me two or even five houses in return.