Eric Reece
I was having dinner with some new friends when the story of Jesus told through the series "The Chosen" was brought up.
It is a blessing to hear people talk about the inspiration they have received watching this amazing series.
"The Chosen" is the biblical-based story of Jesus. It is very accessible and you can view the episodes online. The actors are talented.
In the dinner conversation, I heard some of the actors became Christians while playing their roles. I understand viewers have come to Christ or rededicated their lives to God. Viewership is not limited to churchgoers, as an estimate of 30% have no faith affiliation.
Among the actors I enjoyed watching is Paras Patel – who portrays Matthew, the conflicted tax collector that became a disciple of Jesus. Patel studied finance and real estate in college, before deciding to dedicate his career to acting.
Yet, a finance degree is not what makes his portrayal so good.
In the series, Matthew has a God-given talent with numbers. When he counts, he uses his fingers to calculate large sums. This is called "dactylonomy" and was used in many cultures. I did not know until writing this column that some cultures taught how to count on your fingers up to 9,999.
Somewhere, I have a slide rule from my industrial engineering studies. I imagine Matthew could come up with a calculation while I was still trying to find which side of my slide rule was up.
There was a man who had an extraordinary gift of mental calculation. His slave name was Thomas Fuller, an African who was kidnapped and shipped to America in 1724 at the age of 14.
He worked as a field hand for many years, with people not understanding his amazing gift. He was called the "Virginia Calculator." Stories of his mathematical gifts were legendary and spread as far as Europe.
Once, some abolitionists from Pennsylvania came to see him. They wanted to show others his race was not inferior to others. They asked him a series of prepared mathematical questions. He breezed through the first few, then they asked him, “How many seconds a man has lived, who is seventy years, seventeen days and twelve hours old?"
He answered – in 90 seconds – 2,210,500,800.
One of the men who had ciphered the answer ahead of time looked at his answer and told him he was wrong.
Fuller responded, “Did you forget the leap year?”
The man added the seconds of the leap years to his answer and their sums matched exactly.
I was always taught to use your God-given talents and spiritual gifts to help others. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12 whatever gift God has given you, do it to the best of your ability. He said, if serving is your gift, then serve; if teaching then teach; if encouraging, then encourage.
Just think of what more we could do if we all use our talents and gifts together to help our community.
Eric Reece is the faith columnist for The Graham Star. He is pastor of Robbinsville United Methodist Church and can be reached via email, ereece@wnccumc.net.