So...Adele's song Rolling In The Deep has been on repeat in my head since Monday morning when I watched her Grammy performance on YouTube (I just couldn't bring myself to watch the live broadcast). Her voice is amazing, but the lyrics gripped me. Actually, just one line: "We could've had it all."
Truth be told, the only thing on repeat in my head is that one line. But I couldn't figure out why...then this morning it hit me. I'm not hearing "We could've had it all." Instead, I'm hearing "You could've had it all." Suddenly, I felt like the lazy servant in the Parable of the Talents (see Matthew 25:14-30).
In the parable, a man was going on a journey and he called his servants together to give them some responsibility during his absence. Based on ability, to one servant he gave five talents, to a second he gave two talents and to the last he gave only on. While the man was away, the servant who had received five talents worked and doubled the amount. The same for the servant who had received two talents. But the servant that received only one, buried his for fear he would lose it and have nothing to show upon his master's return.
After a long while, the man did return and there was a reckoning. Proudly, the first servant explained how he had doubled his money to the master's delight. Likewise, the second. But the third servant produced the original talent with a list of excuses, to the master's consternation. That servant was called wicked and lazy and eventually exiled. To add insult to injury, his one talent was taken and given to the servant with 10.
When I read Matthew 25:26-30, I imagine the Almighty God standing with arms folded, shaking His head, tsking at me and saying "You could've had it all." Is that what we will hear when we stand before Him? Will we miss the best God has for us because it is more convenient to do little or nothing with our talents? Will I?
When you think about it, the servant with the five talents must have worked hard. I'm sure it wasn't easy to double the money. It must have taken perseverance and ingenuity. The servant with two talents must have worked hard as well. Why else would the master call the third servant lazy?
For some of us, certain things come so easily that if real work is required we tend to shy away from it. I know I'm like that. It's the reason my college major was spanish instead of biology, like I had intended when I first matriculated. When I looked at the course requirements for a biology major, I decided that Spanish (which was a breeze for me in high school) was the way to go. I look back over my life now and remember how badly I wanted to be a medical doctor as a child and realised that I could've had that had I challenged myself.
And many of us treat our Christian lives that way. Those things that come easily, we do. But we fail when it comes to the more inconvenient things: tithing/giving out of our limited substance, witnessing in hostile environments, refusing to compromise Christian principles when it's the natural thing to do, etc.
The path of inconvenience is not easily chosen and even less easily maintained. But isn't it better to forego convenience now than to reach the end of the journey and find out that we could've had it all?
Truth be told, the only thing on repeat in my head is that one line. But I couldn't figure out why...then this morning it hit me. I'm not hearing "We could've had it all." Instead, I'm hearing "You could've had it all." Suddenly, I felt like the lazy servant in the Parable of the Talents (see Matthew 25:14-30).
In the parable, a man was going on a journey and he called his servants together to give them some responsibility during his absence. Based on ability, to one servant he gave five talents, to a second he gave two talents and to the last he gave only on. While the man was away, the servant who had received five talents worked and doubled the amount. The same for the servant who had received two talents. But the servant that received only one, buried his for fear he would lose it and have nothing to show upon his master's return.
After a long while, the man did return and there was a reckoning. Proudly, the first servant explained how he had doubled his money to the master's delight. Likewise, the second. But the third servant produced the original talent with a list of excuses, to the master's consternation. That servant was called wicked and lazy and eventually exiled. To add insult to injury, his one talent was taken and given to the servant with 10.
When I read Matthew 25:26-30, I imagine the Almighty God standing with arms folded, shaking His head, tsking at me and saying "You could've had it all." Is that what we will hear when we stand before Him? Will we miss the best God has for us because it is more convenient to do little or nothing with our talents? Will I?
When you think about it, the servant with the five talents must have worked hard. I'm sure it wasn't easy to double the money. It must have taken perseverance and ingenuity. The servant with two talents must have worked hard as well. Why else would the master call the third servant lazy?
For some of us, certain things come so easily that if real work is required we tend to shy away from it. I know I'm like that. It's the reason my college major was spanish instead of biology, like I had intended when I first matriculated. When I looked at the course requirements for a biology major, I decided that Spanish (which was a breeze for me in high school) was the way to go. I look back over my life now and remember how badly I wanted to be a medical doctor as a child and realised that I could've had that had I challenged myself.
And many of us treat our Christian lives that way. Those things that come easily, we do. But we fail when it comes to the more inconvenient things: tithing/giving out of our limited substance, witnessing in hostile environments, refusing to compromise Christian principles when it's the natural thing to do, etc.
The path of inconvenience is not easily chosen and even less easily maintained. But isn't it better to forego convenience now than to reach the end of the journey and find out that we could've had it all?
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