The Parable of the Talents is one of three Kingdom parables connected with end times. They are warnings about being ready to face our God when we leave this world. The parable is quite long but the message is very simple and straightforward. Three people are entrusted with very large sums of money and told to put them to good use. Two of the men come back and tell their master they have made twice as much as they were originally given. They are highly praised. They third, however, was afraid that he might lose what he was given so he decided to bury it carefully in the ground and, at the end, returned exactly what he was given. The master is very angry with him. He did not even lend the money out when he could at least have got interest on it. The message is clear enough. Each one of us has been given gifts by God. These gifts are not just for us. They are to be used and they are to be used to make life better for other people. That is the question that we will be asked at the end: What difference did you make to other people's lives? It is not enough to say that I carefully carried out all my spiritual and religious duties. If we did nothing for others with our particular talents, we are in big trouble!