One man in a group being received into the church heard the pastor say, "Now God has given each of you a unique talent. When you join the church, you are expected to serve God with whatever abilities you have." Well, it just so happened that this particular man was a reformed criminal. After he was released from prison, he had renounced the life of crime and gone straight. Joining the church, making a commitment to follow Jesus, was the first step in that effort. Serving God was a little out of his line, but he wanted to do what he could. So he went to the pastor and said, "Preacher, church work is something I'm not real familiar with, but I can fix the church's electric meter so that every other day it will run backwards. That way you'll never have to write another check to American Electric."

Well, some talents are just inappropriate for use in the service of God, no matter how sincerely they're offered! But all of us have at least one talent that is valuable to the church.