“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
A few 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 several 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!
Brian Coffey
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3 comments:
Finding the talent we have and using it for Gods Glory is the trick. I work on that every day hoping to find that out before I pass on.
The men receiving the 5 and 2 talents "went at once" to put the money to work. So they were prepared, they knew how to invest wisely and they also had the confidence to do so.
I wonder where did they get this knowledge and confidence? Their fathers? Self taught? Friends?
I tend to identify with the man who received the one talent - Do I know how to use the talent God has given me? And even if I did, do I have the confidence to act on it, believing it is God's will no matter what happens?
Sometimes I question if I really trust God, other times I question if I really trust my interpretation of what I THINK God wants me to do.
For me this is a very interesting passage.
To the "Anonymous" commenter above, I offer a little story my husband tells repeatedly (that he learned as a young man, from his missionary sister!):
There were 2 believers wanting to do what God wanted of them, both trying to find their calling. One sat by the phone day in and day out, waiting for "The Call" from God, telling him where to go and what to do for God's Kingdom. He turned down the invitation of his friends, when they said, "Hey, come do this ministry with us". He said, "I can't. I'm waiting for my call." The other said the first day, "Well, I don't know what God calls me to do, but while I'm waiting, I'll teach in the Sunday School." THe second day, he said, "I don't know what God wants, but I see they need help at the Food Pantry". THe third day, he said, "I haven't heard from God yet, but my neighbor just lost his job; I'll go over and offer to pray with him, and invite him to church." I encourage you to use your talents for God, wherever and whenever the ideas pop into your head - THAT's the calling of God, the Holy Spirit's prompting, and basically the identification of what you have that you can share with the world! Another thing I learned from Blackaby's book, "Knowing God's Will" - doing God's will means looking around to DISCOVER WHERE GOD IS AT WORK, and then just join Him in it. I like that! :)
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