In God We Trust: Owner or Manager?

Here are some obvious things from the parable of the Talents found in Matthew 25:14-30…

The first two guys knew exactly what they were supposed to do, did it well, and doubled their Master’s holdings.

The third guy presumably knew what to do (otherwise the Master is the moron, which isn’t possible here), but didn’t carry out his responsibilities out of blatant disregard or terrible fear or championship-level laziness.

It seems like Jesus’ cautionary tale is directed at all of us who might choose a path that is motivated out of fear, or laziness, or simple foolishness.

The talents with which we’ve been entrusted are all that makes up our lives. Our mental capacities, emotional intelligence, physical attributes – everything that we are. We’ve been given this thing – life is a gift after all – none of us made ourselves. The inherent hard-wiring we all have been born with is to live life to our fullest potential. We haven’t been born into equal gifts, capacities, or opportunities, but we all have been created with the same goal to reach for our personal best.

So why don’t we?

I don’t think our issue is fear. Besides, the Master already called the guy (and us) on this. If we were truly afraid of God, we’d be motivated, at least toward a conservative return on our life.

I’d like to think that we’re all hard-wired for the first two responses. I think we are. But I think we may have adopted some software along the way that allows us to bypass our hard-wiring.

In July, our home computer crashed. The warning that my hard drive was shot came on the day it died. Thanks, Microsoft! A lot of the stuff on my hard drive was backed up, but not my iTunes – over 5,000 songs. I wasn’t worried, though, because I had recently synched my iPod with my iTunes, which meant that all my music was on my iPod. Cool. No problem. That is, until I tried to simply move my music onto iTunes on my new home computer. No can do. I wasted a few hours reading up on stuff, and finally went against my gender’s predispositions and called Tech Support. Oh the pain! I found out, unofficially from the iTunes support person, that I would have to buy a third party software program to work around iTunes. Silly that iTunes wouldn’t let me put my own stuff on my new computer… Grrr!

Apple blew it on that one. Bad programming. But I believe our human programming from God is perfectly designed to do well. What I think messes it up is lots of add-ins we allow or were given us that have become such a part of us that we don’t even know they are running in our background. Maybe this has something to do with us reflecting the third servant more than we would care to admit.

I wonder if we in the West really believe that it’s all God’s stuff in the first place. I think our drive for the American Dream has produced great results, but may also have shaded our vision. I don’t think we really believe that we are managers and not owners.

If we really believe that we’re managers and not owners, then we’d be asking different questions.

Instead of: “What can I do with my stuff to make myself more comfortable and happy?” we might ask: “What does God want me to do with all this stuff God has entrusted to me?”

Instead of: “What can I do to make sure I have more than enough?” we might ask “Since I’m not taking any of it with me anyway, who needs help that I can provide?”

There are a million questions we are tempted to ask as owners, few of which are related to the questions we need to ask as managers.

Note: If we get the right answers to the wrong questions, guess what? We’re still wrong!

Owner question: “What kind of God is going to hold me accountable?” Answer (wrong): “God is mean and unfair – I can’t win no matter what, so what difference does it make how I live my life?”

Wrong question.

Right question: “How can I best manage this life God has given me to produce the most and best fruit possible for the Master’s interests?”

Think about the possibilities now.

What is possible if we get this thing right? How much fruit can we produce? Especially over several seasons?

If the world ended in a few weeks, what could we accomplish? Only a little.

But what if we really let this paradigm take hold, how could we increase the Kingdom – the Master’s interests – over the next three, five and ten years?

All of the challenges the Napa community faces can be alleviated if people begin living in the Way of Christ, which is getting back to how God wired us for life in the first place.

Think about it…

Gangs aren’t so attractive if families are loving each other modeled after the love of God.

Gang leaders aren’t so motivated if they’ve discovered a movement and a community that will love them, empower them for great good, and redeem instead of destroy.

Domestic Violence disappears as couples learn the principles of mutual servant hood.

Unwanted pregnancies go way down as men and women learn the principles outlined in the scriptures.

Racial tensions ease as we see each other as equals, and treat each other as equals by respecting our respective backgrounds – a deeply Christian value.

What could Napa look like if we get this principle right? How would you do your life differently if you treated it as a gift instead of something you somehow earned?

This parable was leveled against the leaders of the faith that buried the potential when they should have been investing it wisely.

This passage, of course, also addresses finances, since it is a parable based on finances.

How will your spending change if you begin adopting a new worldview as a manager instead of owner? What do you suppose God thinks about you getting out of debt? God’s for it. What do you think is God’s take on financially supporting the Kingdom work of the Church so that we can move into Napa with greater strength? God’s for it.

I’m aware that we are potentially facing the worst financial chapter of our nation’s life since the Great Depression, and that talking about money may be the stupidest thing we could do. But understand this: the principles of financial stewardship that will get you through these tough times are the same principles that will enable you to get to a place where you can do great things for the Kingdom in this world.

We can take on some of Napa’s greatest challenges and redeem them as we trade in our falsified papers of ownership and embrace our title as managers.

We can not only lift up Napa, we can help redeem Tijuana from the ground up as we restore life to battered women and their children through Deborah’s House. We can take on human trafficking there and win, but only if we see ourselves as managers.

We can not just lift up one part of one slum outside of Nairobi, Kenya, but we can begin lifting the entire slum as we think “manager” instead of “owner.”

This series will give you lots of opportunities to trade in one hat for the other. Together we will see areas of our lives that reflect that third servant, and we will confess and repent, choosing to turn in God’s direction lest we end our lives with nothing but the skin of our teeth.

May you come to grips with the reality that you are not an owner, but a manager. May you begin living accordingly.