What Are You Doing With Your Talents?

Matthew 25:14-30
The parable of the talents starts with a man getting ready to embark on a journey. He calls his servants and gives one servant five talents, another two talents, and another one talent. While he is gone, the one with five doubles his amount, the one with two does the same, but the servant with one talent hides it in the ground. When the master returns, he is pleased with the first two servants, but calls the final servant wicked and lazy and sends him packing.

Happiness
When the master returns and gets the status reports, he says to each of the first two servants, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! Matthew 25: 21, 23

The thing that really caught my attention is the correlation between faithfulness and happiness. The fellows who were being great stewards were invited to share the master's happiness, but the guy that wasn't even attempting to do anything with his talent was miserable. I wonder if we would all be much happier if we got about the business of developing and investing the talents (money, ability, personality traits, etc...) that the Lord has given us.

I like what it says in Ecclesiastes 5:19-20: Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work- this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. In other words, when we get busy with what God has given us to do we don't get depressed and consumed with "me".

Attitude
The fate of these servants rested on their attitudes. The first servant had this reaction when his master returned: "Master, he said, you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more." Matthew 25:20. The second servant's words were the same except he had only doubled his two talents (Matthew 25:22). Both of their reactions could be classified as grateful humility. They were excited to be "entrusted" with talents. They viewed it as an awesome privilege and responsibility. They had a love for their master and desired to please him and make him proud, which they did.

The third servant had this to say upon the master's return: "Master," he said, "I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you." Matthew 25:24-25 Notice the huge difference in attitude. This talent wasn't a delight to him, it was a burden, just one more thing to do. He didn't love the master, he feared him. He had the typical slave/master mentality. He wasn't about to do anything more than the absolute minimum and he would return to the master only that which was given to him, nothing more. Not only that, but this fellow was either a liar or grossly deceived. Every ability he had in life stemmed from his master, who had lovingly given him the talent in the first place. His master had definitely sowed something into his life before he expected a harvest. It was the servant's attitude toward his master, toward the talent, toward life that determined his destiny.

Opportunity
Why did the master give talents to the servants? If he had simply needed someone to watch over his property he could have chosen one servant or hired someone. He certainly didn't need to divide things up between three servants. He gave them talents because he loved them and wanted to present them with an opportunity to prove themselves faithful and thereby receive promotion and reward.

He also expected them to carry on his business. The goal was to gain, not just maintain. It says in Matthew 25:19 that when he returned he "settled accounts" with them. He was expecting something from them when he returned. They were to continue to grow his property in his absence. In essence, he was giving them a chance to advance beyond being a simple servant. They had an opportunity to become overseers and bosses.

Another thing to note is the meticulous care the master exhibited when he assigned the talents to the servants. It says that he gave to each "according to his ability" (Matthew 25:15). He wasn't a hard taskmaster, but rather more like a loving father. He thought through all of this before taking action. He looked at each servant's skills and natural giftings and he assigned talents accordingly. He didn't overburden anyone, but gave each one what he knew he could handle. He set them up for success!

Application
What about us? What has the Lord entrusted to our care? What are we doing with it? Do we have the right attitude or are we paralyzed with fear? Do we view work as an opportunity or a drudgery? Are we missing out on God's blessing because we simply won't get up and try to do develop our abilities?

God has given each of us talents and abilities to be used to further His kingdom and in the process we will be blessed. It's interesting that these verses never tell us whether or not the servants enjoyed what they did to gain more talents. Hopefully, they did, but their real joy was found in pleasing the master and that is where we will find our real joy too- when we are faithful.