Wild and Crazy Thoughts on Parable of the Talents
Like a 13-year-old adolescent girl, I scan the Facebook feed stopping to pursue delicious looking new recipes; family snow day or vacation photos; rants about any number of things; and my favorite writer’s blog posts. Most of these people are personal friends. I honestly care about their lives and want to be able to stay caught up. Startled by my phone buzzing, I realize that I have just lost ninety minutes of writing time. WHAT was I thinking? I know how this game works and yet, I took the bait and dropped into the land of Facebook. It’s just one click away from where I write in Squarespace. Hum…
Returning to the computer after the call, frustration mounts; doubts about my ability to communicate through writing take on hurricane force winds inside my head; the troll of comparison has set up shop and I’m mad at myself for wasting moments that could’ve been used to finish writing the chapter that is due tomorrow. It seems like everytime I go around this mountain, I vow that I won’t do it again because the longer I stay in “Facebook Land” the more I let down my guard. Once my guard is down, my clarity is lost, and my energy is zapped. Does this happen to anyone else? Maybe for you, it’s not social media land, maybe it is watching TV or shopping on Amazon Prime or even reading a good book?
I just finished studying the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. I have always read this in relation to the financial funds that God entrusts to us, but what if it is about more than that? What if it is also about what He has put in our hands? He has made us, equipped us, and entrusted us with particular gifts, talents, skills, passions and things that He wants us to use as His extremities to this broken, hurting world. For me, writing and communicating is what He has put in my hands. I’m pretty sure He wants a return on this investment. When I spend my writing time comparing my gift with others, this is like the servant that was given the one talent and chose to bury it. When I compare, I end up burying my talent and not using it. When I invest my talent and do things to make it grow (i.e. attending writing conferences; saying yes to speaking opportunities; or coaching others), that will allow it to multiply into the lives of others. This is equivalent to the other servants and how they invested their talents. They went out and invested what He had entrusted to them.
What is in your hands? How will you choose to invest it in order to allow God to multiply it for His purposes of healing this broken world?
Until We Chat Again,
Crystal
Matthew 25:14-30 The Message (MSG)
The Story About Investment
14-18 “It’s also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
19-21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
22-23 “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
24-25 “The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’
26-27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28-30 “‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’
