(I am pleased to share some thoughts my son wrote in this post.)

I wasn’t even reading my Bible this morning when I felt called to look up the “Parable of the Talents” in Matthew 25: 14-30. Speaking not only of Christians, it is obvious that we are all not given the same amount of talents, the same amount of resources, the same amount of blessings or the same amount of opportunities. While we can find similarities, no two people are in the exact same situation. However, I will state that all Christians are given talents and we are all expected to provide a return on those talents for our master.

I am currently at a time in my life where I feel like I have been given much and returned very little. Regardless of where you may feel you are today in light of this teaching (I encourage everyone to read the parable in Matthew 25: 14-30), I do have a few things I would like to make a note of.

First of all, I noticed that the poor servant who only had one talent ended up having that talent taken away and given to the servant who had the most. I am not going to make an argument about socialism, but it is worth noting that not having much is not an excuse for not producing more.

Secondly, while hard-work is extremely important, this passage mentions only that the two successful servants were “faithful.” The Bible does stress the importance of hard-work–Colossians 3:23 tells us “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters . . .”

The third thing I noticed was in verse 19, “Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.” This came as a relief to me because it shows that I still have time to do better. Eventually the master did come back to settle though.

Being afraid and not having much isn’t a good enough excuse to not faithfully serve the Lord and use our talents. While at times I feel like I don’t have a lot, I only have to look around at the people in my life to realize how greatly I have been blessed. My girlfriend brought to my attention an athlete who plays outside linebacker for the University of Central Florida named Shaquem Griffin. He was also the AAC defensive player of the year last year. The interesting thing is he only has one hand due to a birth complication that led to an amputation at age 4. After being part of an undefeated team this season Griffin said, “It always comes down to the work ethic. God put you on the Earth for a purpose. I feel like my purpose is to get away from people making excuses.” I would wish him luck in the NFL, but he doesn’t need it.

If you would like to let me know where you are today in light of this parable, or what you think, please leave a comment below or send me an email at rmmeven@gmail.com