Dear Faith Family,
Do you ever think about what God wants you to do with your life? How He desires you to use your gifts, abilities, and passions for His kingdom and your good? Based on a near-decade of time together, I know you do! And I'm right there with you! Cyclically assessing if I am putting my talents to their most honoring, prosperous, and fulfilling use.
The funny thing is, we looked at Parable of The Talents on Sunday and discovered Jesus' kingdom depiction had nothing to do with the proper use of what abilities we possess. Instead, what Jesus expects is for us to put to use His life given to us.
I know that the last sentence sounds strange, but understanding it is crucial to the question which we regularly wrestle. So let's tease it out a bit.
Suppose we (even unconsciously) assume that a faithful and fruitful life with God and others comes from making the best use of our gifts, abilities, and passions. How do we account for the, say, 60-90% of life lived outside of our skills and aspirations? We can all attest to the reality that a significant portion of life is doing things that we feel ill-equipped or uninspired to do! So is only what can be done well, and fulfilling so, worth doing in the kingdom of God?
Of course not! We know that it's often in our struggle and weakness that the kingdom comes most clearly into sight. While it's a good, even blessed, thing to be in a place to use our talents and passions, it's not necessary to a faithful and fruitful life. But let's take things a step further.
Do we think that if we were somehow able to make the most of our talents--our natural abilities and honed skills--the world would be righted? At least our personal world anyway. Doing what we are best at and love, for God, surely bears the highest kingdom yield. But what about those times when it doesn't? When talents employed with zeal return little evidence internally and/or externally that the kingdom has indeed made a significant appearance. In these seasons, we wonder if something is off or missing. Here, we question if we should be doing something else with our life. If experiencing the abundance of the kingdom is really contingent on using my talents, it's no wonder I come back again and again to the question that got us started!
Yet we know that the kingdom--God with us and for us, reconciling to himself all things, overcoming sin and death, making all things new--is an unstoppable movement. While perhaps not as speedy as we'd prefer, we know what was started will be finished. So why are we, as willing participants in salvation's continued unfolding, so rarely settled on our place and purpose in the story?
It is true that living into who God has uniquely, intimately, and lovingly crafted us to be in relation to himself and his kingdom is an essential focus of our faith (i.e., Psalm 139). And our faith family spends a significant amount of time on this focus. So maybe our issue isn't the intent of our longing. Desiring to do what we love and are good at for God is a good thing! The real issue is we focus too intently on what we bring to the table, rather than what is offered at the table.
Going back to Jesus' story, the master entrusts his servants what is already his, essentially and practically his life. The entrusting master expects his now elevated servants to use his life. To trade with it, to put it to work, and in so doing, they discover an absurdly abundant return.
The master does not say to the servants, "Use what you have (i.e., your talents)," but rather, "Take what is mine, my talents, my life and live on it, through it, for it." And on his return, it is the servants' faithfulness to go about their business using the master's life that earns his delight and completes their joy.
So, perhaps the question is not what am I doing with my life (my talents), but how am I living on Jesus' life? In what ways am I living on the sacrificial compassion, excessive generosity, and unqualified faith bestowed to me?
After all, as the apostle Paul put it,
"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)
So here is my challenge and encouragement to us. Instead of getting up tomorrow and asking, "How can I best use my skills and abilities, my talents, for the kingdom today?" Let us begin our day by asking the Spirit for the strength and wisdom to "Let me put to use the life and faith of Jesus in me today."
I wonder if we won't see those same "talents" produce abundant kingdom returns!
Love you, faith family. God bless!