Use it or Lose it
Recently, this article appeared in the online news portal The Malaysian Insider, "Malaysia's next export: Maids?" which cited comments by Lim Tze Cheng, Head of Research at Corston-Smith Asset Management. Lim gave Malaysia a 70 percent chance that it will be exporting maids in 20 years' time if we as a nation did not get our act together.
He said the issues plaguing Malaysian included its "problematic" education system and distressingly low ability to retain talent. This was confirmed by Malaysian Employers Federation Executive Director Haji Shamsu-ddin Bardan who said that Malaysia was currently a net exporter of talent with outflows exceeding inflows.
Statistics reveals that 785,000 Malay-sians are working abroad, two out of three of which are professionals.
Though the Government is trying its best to check this outflow, in reality, globalisation has opened greener pastures for our youths. They no longer find it a constraint to work anywhere as long as the conditions of the playing field are fair and just.
Talking about talents, we have "The Parable of the Talents" recorded in Matthew 25. The parable teaches that God's servants must be faithful by promptly and efficiently administering what has been entrusted to them until the day of reckoning.
We can mismanage our God-given talents and face serious repercussions.
It is obvious from the parable that we have two options - invest the talents so that we will see results and bless others, or deposit the talents safely in a hidden place, because we fear to account to the master.
The Lord has bestowed many talents upon her Church. The Church will need to give an account on how she has used the talents. If the Malaysian Church is to rise and make an impact on the community and the nation, it must be willing to share its resources and work together with a Kingdom mindset.
However, if we choose to deposit our talents in a hidden place, we can expect our Master to dismiss us as wicked and lazy servants and chide us for indolence and faithlessness.
Just as the above advice from the consultant is for the nation to get its act together before it falls behind its neighbours, we too as a Church are called to be faithful.
The Kingdom has been entrusted to us. It is our responsibility to use its spiritual benefits faithfully until the Kingdom comes in fullness when Jesus Christ returns as King. |
