“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”
- Matthew 25:14-30
Several years ago, I came across the story of a man named Leopoldo Pujals. Mr. Pujals grew up in South Florida, the son of a Cuban immigrant family. He spent many years trying to climb the corporate ladder at Johnson & Johnson and wound up selling surgical equipment in Spain. While in Spain, he noticed the rising popularity of fast food as well as the cultural shift of more and more women entering the work force. Becoming somewhat frustrated with his “dead end” job, he eventually decided to invest his entire life savings to open a pizza delivery business called “Tele-pizza.” His vision was to make it easy for women to use the telephone to call and order food delivered straight to their home instead of having to cook after a long day at work. Ten years later, “Tele-pizza” was opening a new store every three days, and Pujals' investment of $100,000 had become $665 million.
Few of us experience the financial success of a Leopoldo Pujals, but like Mr. Pujals, we are all in the investment business! That is, we all make decisions every day about how and where we will invest the precious resources of our time, our talent, our treasure – and our lives. We make choices, consciously or unconsciously, to invest ourselves in work, in family relationships, in entertainment, in hobbies, in community service, in our church, and in a thousand other ways. Some of those investments are here today and gone tomorrow with nothing gained. And some of them are multiplied many times over and actually have an eternal return. The trick, of course, is to know which is which!
Jesus is teaching us that the Master wants us to invest His resources both boldly and wisely. He wants us invest in that which is precious to Him and that which will produce an eternal return in His kingdom. Ask the Lord to help you review your own personal and spiritual “investment strategy.” Are you investing your life both boldly and wisely in the things that Jesus would hold most precious? Are you building a legacy that will far outlive your own life? Ask Him to help you so orient your priorities so that He will be pleased with the return on His investment in you!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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