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The Story About Investment
Matthew 25: 14-30 (MSG bible)
How do you handle your money?
“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. 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.’ “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. 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.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.‘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.’
Wow! I've read this parable many times and ocassionally it has hit me in areas. Sometimes I even have applied it to talents, as in abilities. But reality is, that this parable is using money to bring home the lessons of discipline,
This last time I read this parable I felt like "the covers had been pulled off me" and I was being scrunitized and judged! Maybe it was because certain circumstances in my life have already shined the light on the stuff thats been put off, ignored and then forgotten. The parable that day seemed to spotlight everything besides the money issues in my life.
Literally, I went about my home, looking around, and I was humilated that someone dared to point out the broken things, the dirty things, the dusty and cobwebbed areas. Lots of emotions rise when your short comings spill out. I was angry, "How dare them be disatisfied with my home? After all it was MY home! I can live the way I want. Then I was defensive because I had legitimate reasons for dust and broken things. My life is busy and I try really hard to keep my house up and I don't have extra "money to pay for help, and I have to do the important stuff first, the most visible stuff. My goodness, I was exploding in my head for days with defensive excuses as to why I wasn't keeping up. Then I was sad because I knew I was failing. Sad because after so many years I still couldn't make my house beautiful, sad because year after year I come to the place of assessment and fail. I was feeling sorry for myself because I fell into the hole of "I'll never change"
After all the fighting with the offenders, then with myself and finally with God, I decided to reason with God and choose to learn from this very painfully illuminating experience. Like my Pastor always says when dealing with circumstances that convict you: "First you're mad, then you're sad, then you're glad"
Lord, what could I do to improve the situation and obtain your help? I sat down and made another list "TO DO" Unfortunately it's a list that I'm still writing since it is never ending. However, I have already spoken with Ben about it and have begun to work on it and check off some things. There will be plenty of things on the list that will require more than just "elbow grease"and repairs, while other things will require gaining knowledge to be able to tackle them. EVERYTHING on the list will require disciple and some things will demand money that we currently "think" we do not have.
All of this brings me to the question of the parable: What amount of talent has God given me? What level of talents can I be trusted with? What level of talents do I want to be trusted with? What does a 1 talent, 2 talent and 5 talent person look like? What does God expect us to do with the money he gives us? Is he a hard task master?
