In reflection of 2014, much has happened this year! We've seen great successes and achievements, but we have also seen disasters. But I've been reflecting on how I've seen many situations this year and what I have done with what I've been given this year.
Jesus tells the story of a master leaving talents with his three men as he is going away. I can imagine him calling them to him and giving a speech as if preparing them for war. "I'm going away," he cries, "so I am leaving you in charge of a few things." The men stand watching their master intently, as he paces the ground in front of them. What he could be asking of them? Are they able to do it? One of the men swallow hard, afraid to wipe the sweat standing to attention on his brow.
"To you," the master points to the man who has fear dancing joyously in his eyes, "I leave one talent."
The master then turns to look at the second man. "I leave you with two talents."
Then the master treads the ground carefully until he is standing in front of the third man. He lowers his voices and speaks gently, but still with authority. "And to you, I leave five talents."
After the grand speech, the master jumps on his horse and gallops away into the sunset. That's how I picture it!
But how do the men see the talents? What do they do with them? One seemingly had a lot, and one seemingly had a little. What do they do? The men with two and five talents invested them and saw that what they had been given multiplied. However the man with one talent hid it in the ground! But why would he do that?
The master returns, and again I can see him calling the men to him again. Upon finding out that two of the men have invested their talents and have made more he congratulates them and gives them more responsibility. However, he is furious with the other man! He demands to know why this has happened. Slowly, the man stutters as he explains to the master that he was afraid because he knew his master was a stern man and so he hid his talent. Furious, the master orders for the talent to be taken away with him and given to the man who was initially given five. The man is the sent away. What has always stuck out to me is that he said he knew the master was stern. If the master was stern, why did the others not bury their talents as they had more to lose.
Maybe the others saw their talents more as a blessing. Maybe he saw his one talent as a burden. To the other two men the talents were an opportunity waiting to be multiplied. To other man, this talent was a catastrophe waiting to happen. They were all given talents, but one man saw it as a burden rather than a blessing.
This year I've invested and I've buried. I've been open and I've hid. I think I've hid and I've buried more than been open and invested. Why? Because I've seen opportunities more as burdens than blessings. My perspective prevented me from being blessed in situations. There are things I could have done, dreams that could have been fulfilled that haven't been because I've been afraid. Worried I might fail, I've seen things as burdens instead. I've seen the stress in something, rather than the blessing. Even when being given a blessing, if I've seen it as a burden, then that is how I've treated it. Opportunities to invest in people I've seen as burdens rather than blessings.
Last week many of us were celebrating Christmas, and hearing the story of the nativity, I was reminded of blessings and burdens. When Mary was told she was going to give birth to Jesus she saw it as a blessing. Thinking realistically about this I might have seen it as a burden. There was a great chance she would be shunned by society. An outcast. A reject. And then she was engaged to Joseph. If he abandoned her she would be on her own raising her child. A possible burden, she saw as a blessing. How many things have we seen as burdens this year that could have been blessings?
This week I was listening to a sermon from Elevation church in relation to the Christmas story. Things changed drastically for Mary and Joseph and instead of a burden, they saw it and treated it as a blessing. Many times, changes to plans can seem to be burdens when they are in fact blessings.
Next year, I don't want to treat any situation as a burden. Every situation has the potential to be a blessing. But how will I choose to see it?
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