Post from July 2, 2023

“👟 RSD 1160 ✅ Today’s Verse: “‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.’” — Luke 16:10

As always, the Message translation puts it simply: “‘If you’re not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store?’”

Money. Ugh. Does anyone else feel like this when the subject of money comes up? Who has it, who needs it—how much of it you should have for your home, your retirement, or your kids’ college. Social media is full of influencers that make you feel poor and news stories about places that will, if you’re halfway paying attention, make you feel disgustingly wealthy (you know, not in a good way…think Scrooge McDuck). You feel bad cause you don’t have enough, scroll a bit, and you feel bad that you have too much. Exhausting. Well, today’s verse (extra quotes cause it’s Jesus talking, telling a story actually) talks about managing money, but the verse talks about money things in such a way that we are able to take more than one lesson from it. Yes, in short: don’t be greedy with money; come by it honestly; don’t obsess over having it or acquiring it; use it for good, and help people when you can. And, yes, it’s ok to enjoy yourself as well. Easy enough ideas, although sometimes hard to put into practice. But, taking a step back on occasion to check yourself and see if you’re doing your best with the resources God provides for you will help maintain this balance. Step back, because everything pales in too close proximity to a focal point.

I actually think about this verse from time to time, and it’s not because I’m some sort of financier. See, the story was about a guy with money, but the moral of the story tells a lot more. Trusted with little means you can be trusted with much. This idea shows itself in our day-to-day lives, just often in different packaging (Jesus is good about giving us a lot to go on). In friendships, you don’t tell a new friend everything right away. Why not? You enjoy their company, and you can’t think of any reason why they’d misplace your trust. Why not tell a new friend everything that’s going on in your life? Because you don’t know them well enough. Yeah, they seem solid enough, but you don’t know if, for whatever reason, they might share information that they shouldn’t share or act toward you unfairly based on information you gave them. You don’t tell a brand new friend everything. You work on building trust, and, here’s the thing: you naturally know to do this; you don’t purposely hide or share—it’s a feeling, and you just know when you can trust someone. You get to know each other. You forge a bond. You share some things, as do they. You tell a new friend not big stuff. After time passes and you see that they are trustworthy as they do you (again, probably unconsciously), then y’all share more important things with each other. If you had found the new friend to judge people unkindly or to be a gossip, you might still get together socially, but you won’t be sharing anything super important with them. If you can’t trust a friend with easy things, you can’t trust a friend with hard things. We figure this out as kids (probably teens), but it’s something that, if we’re wise enough, we will apply to other facets of life.

Think about it. At work, they don’t give the biggest, most important job to the new person. Why not? Because, yes, the new person might not know quite what to do, but it’s also because the new person might not care. If you’re given too much too soon, you might not care that much about it. “Easy come, easy go.” You ever wonder why it’s hard to earn things sometimes? Because if everything comes easily, it’s really easy to forget its value, whether it be what we hear about lottery winners or people who become quickly famous (new actor, singer, athlete, etc. with great success early on). Sometimes being trusted with a little isn’t funds or a friend’s secrets; sometimes being trusted with a little means being given a little responsibility or a little talent. The latter two are probably more frequent…and are probably more frustrating.

There’s this great quote from Erma Bombeck that I first saw in my teens and have seen circulating for years: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’” Talent. We all want it for whatever reason. Nobody wants to be bad at something. We all want to be the person who finds success (and finds it quickly). So, why don’t we get to? Have you ever heard of “hard work beats talent every time?” For most of us, if we’re afforded easy successes, we’d be greatly tempted to altogether omit the “hard work” part, fail to develop respect for those who do work hard (either because they have to or want to), and/or become “bored” with our good fortune. Bored? Think about it. How many people continually chase the next thing because the video game isn’t always as much fun to play once you beat it. Lack of talent keeps us humble; it enables us to know how to work for something, how to lose, and how to win…how to help others win. Talent that isn’t natural, talent that’s really skill that’s hard-earned: the victories from those talents are the best kind. They don’t even have to be big victories to feel sweet. See, these victories enable us to build on success for future success, both for ourselves and for others. When you have to keep believing and keep working as the blooms on the plant of talent open little by little, you begin to ask yourself where all you can use this talent. I mean—that’s a lot do work, right? You’d want to find good use for it. That’s where that quote comes in. “‘I used everything you gave me.’” We use this newly-earned “natural aptitude or skill” (Google/Oxford) to teach others in the field we’re working so hard in, to encourage others learning alongside us, to serve others even outside of the field. We use the extras we’ve acquired in the course of our journey (tenacity, humility, compassion, patience) in other areas of life to promote good. We can use all of what we’ve learned to serve, to lead, and to help to build up others. God does a lot with a little hard work on our part.

There’s a video that’s been circulating this week of Jolien Boumkwo, a champion shot-putter who ran the 100m hurdles (in place of an injured teammate) to earn the 2 points her team needed to stay in contention for a top spot in the competition. Some people would be afraid that they’d be embarrassed (she’s not a competitive runner), and some people would say that it isn’t their problem. But, Jolien only thought of her team. She knew that the best way to lead her team and help them to victory was to serve them on the hurdles, to (literally) leap her team over the hurdles the crucible of competition had put in front of their success. I’ve had this conversation a few times in the past weeks (today, even): it seems that there are a lot of people who want to “lead” and not a lot of people who want to “serve.” See, leading from such a “high” place that you think serving is beneath you only means that you want to be a boss, want to be noticed for your position, want the power, the accolades, the prestige. I’ve said it before because this fact puts a great deal into perspective: “prestige” comes from a French word meaning illusion or deceit, derived from a Latin word meaning “conjuring tricks.” You cannot lead if you cannot serve, and I mean “hands dirty, muscles tired, behind-the-scenes where nobody notices” serve. True leadership is serving when there’s not much in it for you. The Lord calls us to serve Him by serving each other. “‘Love one another, as I have loved you’” — John 13:34. Loving is our greatest responsibility, and God gives us small opportunities to show love each day. Imagine what all could be accomplished if we found a way to do our best, both with our innate talents and the talents we’ve worked for, in each of these opportunities. It’s quite a task, and we won’t do it perfectly, but it’s amazingly worth the effort: “I used everything You gave me.” “‘Trusted with very little can also be trusted with very much.’”

Today’s photo is a good “pick me up” when running. It came on today, and I wanted to share.”