The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
The Most Reluctant Teacher: How I Almost Buried My Calling
It’s quite possible that I was the most reluctant convert to the teaching profession in human history. I loved studying English. I knew that quite clearly as I neared the end of my college career. But should anybody ask the dreaded question—”Are you gonna be a teacher?”–they would feel my wrath.
I was in utter denial about my calling to teach for a full year before I decided to get my alternate route teaching license. Because of my own pride and hardheadedness, it took me way longer than it should have to discover that teaching was my ministry, my calling.
Ultimately, I was running from the mission field God had called me to. I wasn’t pulling a Jonah and running because I knew this was what God wanted me to do, but I definitely wasn’t trying to seek God’s will for my future career. And that’s the problem. I may not have intended to be disobedient to God’s leading, but by refusing to seek His guidance, I was still being rebellious.
What the Parable of the Talents Really Says About Faithful Stewardship of Your Gifts
Today’s verse comes from the Parable of the Talents, where Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a master who is going on a journey. He leaves his possessions and wealth in the hands of three servants. Two of the servants invest and trade the money and earn more, while the third buries the money and earns nothing.
When the master returns, he is overjoyed at the work of the two servants who multiplied what he had given them. The third servant, however, receives a less-than-enthusiastic response.
The only difference between the first two servants and the third is that the first two take what the master has given them and actively seek out ways to multiply it. The third servant buries the wealth he receives.
I’m not a theologian, so I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what Jesus meant by this parable, but I do know that I see my fresh-out-of-college self in the third servant. God had already given me all the tools I needed to step into my calling, but rather than look for ways to use the skills and knowledge I had, I ran from that calling and started interviewing for corporate jobs that I could do without investing in other people’s lives. I buried what God had given me rather than looking for a way to invest it.
Two Things You Forfeit When You Bury Your God-Given Gifts
There’s no telling what I missed out on by being stubborn during that year after college, but there are two things that the passage says we’ll miss out on if we refuse to look for ways to use our gifts to minister to others.
First, we forfeit the blessings God has for us. The master gives the first two servants more than the overwhelming sum they had before.
But even worse, we run the risk of missing out on the joy we could experience by making our Heavenly Father proud. The main result of the first two servants faithfully multiplying what they’ve been given is a deeper relationship with their master. There’s deeper trust between the master and servants now. Not to mention the master expresses joy at the results of their work.
How to Start Using Your Gifts for Your Calling Today
We all have gifts that we’ve been given so that we can step into God’s calling on our lives. He didn’t leave anyone out when He made His plan. But according to the Parable of the Talents, that truth comes with both responsibility and opportunity. The responsibility to actively seek out the calling God has equipped us for, and the opportunity to enter into the joy of our Master if we do. So let’s take our cue from the first two servants and ask God what calling He’s preparing us for.
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