Using Your Gifts

What if Charles Darwin had met Gregor Mendel?  This is a question that has provoked much thought from scientists throughout generations.  Darwin and Mendel were contemporaries, working in similar fields.  Darwin observed the results of genetic variation in the Galapagos, while Mendel was explaining why we get these variations.  However, Mendel would never have tried to extrapolate genetic variation in pea plants to say that over time, pea plants could turn into anything else but pea plants.  Mendel had the scientific advancement to stop the spread of evolutionary thinking, but he was living in a monastery and his writings were not even published in the same languages Darwin could understand.

Mendel had the chance to make a huge difference in the scientific community of his day, and perhaps he could have helped turn others to God through his science by explaining where Darwin was right and where he was dreadfully wrong.  If Mendel had been in the world a little bit more, maybe he could have changed the world in his day and ours too.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Gregor Mendel’s work and think he was an incredible scientist who saw science as a service to God.  I think that maybe God wanted Mendel to do more than just study the pea plants and have a close walk with his Savior, but also to share those things with those around him.  Then again, perhaps Mendel never would have ended up studying pea plants if he had not decided to be a monk.

We could go on forever about what could have happened in Mendel’s day, but it is more important to focus on what we can learn from his life to apply to our lives today.  God has given us all talents and abilities to use for His glory, and He wants each one of us to learn to live every moment of our lives with Him as our constant companion.  God gave us these things not just to use for ourselves, but to change the world around us for His glory.  Yes, it’s more comfortable to keep our gifts and relationship with Him at home where they are safe, but God has given us those things to use.  As Jesus said in Luke 12:48, “. . . For unto whomsoever much has been given, of him shall much be required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” So use what the Lord has given you – today, right where you are – to make a difference for His glory in the world around you.