What are we doing with the rich investment God has put into us?

I have always been a fan of the HGTV show Fixer Upper.

A highlight of one of our trips to visit family in Texas was going to the Magnolia Silos in Waco. Home renovators Chip and Joanna Gaines have made a huge investment in this city. They are transforming it from a place known mostly for its dark history to the Mecca of all things Magnolia. People from across the U.S. and beyond travel to Waco to visit their store, bakery, restaurant, bed ’n breakfast, and more. What started as a general contractor and a designer who had little more than a love for each other and for Jesus has turned into a national phenomenon. Chip and Joanna took what God had given them—talent, personality, skills, gifting, and life experience—and turned it into an empire.

Not everyone has Gaines-level gifting or success. I know I sure don’t! But that does not mean that I am not gifted at all

God has given me my own set of giftings, talents, and resources to steward.  

The parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 addresses this disparity. Jesus tells the story of a rich man leaving his estate for a time. As he prepares to go, he  divides his assets among his servants for them to guard; this was a common practice of the day. “To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags and to another one bag, each according to his ability” (vs 15). Eventually, the man returns to his home and calls his servants to give an account of what they had done with his gold. The first two servants had taken what he had given them, invested it, and were able to give him double what he had supplied them with. The last servant gave him back only what he had given him, feeling satisfied that he had not lost any of the gold.

I have always had a heart for this last servant. To me, his choice seemed very logical. He wanted to be sure nothing happened to the money that had been entrusted to him. He protected what did not belong to him. Why in the world did the master call him a wicked and lazy servant and then throw him out? For someone who is hesitant to take risks, especially with someone else’s belongings, this seems awfully harsh.

In studying this parable I realized that the focus was not on productiveness or risk taking, it was on faithfulness.

The response and subsequent reward from the master was the exact same for both of the servants who had doubled their money. It didn’t matter that one was given more than twice the amount of the other to begin with. These servants took what their master had given them and chose to make the most of it.

The servant who only received one bag of gold took what the master gave him and did nothing with it. When asked why he didn’t use the opportunity to grow what he had, the servant pointed blame at the master and tried to duck out of any responsibility. He essentially said, “Look, you wanted me to care for your money and I did it. What’s the big deal?”

God has given all of us skills, abilities, and resources.

This lesson tells us that we are supposed to do something with what God has given us. He is interested in our faithfulness, our stewardship of His gifts, more than the final outcome.

This is part of what has led me to write. While I am not (yet) a true craftsman with words, I can string a few together. I have spent the last year participating in trainings, critique groups, and social media groups to help me become a better writer. I believe that writing is one of the talents God has given me. Therefore, I have chosen to leverage and lean into it for His glory. 

We don’t have to achieve the same level of success as Chip and Joanna.

As long as we are faithful with what He has given us, He will open His arms to us and say, “Well done good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21). However, if we sit on our gifts and talents, never developing them, and using them just for our own pleasure, His response to us will be very different. 

After taking an inventory of the various ways God has gifted you, where does your account stand? Are you being faithful with what you have, growing it for the glory of the Lord? How can you continue to invest the “gold” God has entrusted to you?