Faith From 9 to 5

Are you a good steward of your gifts or is fear holding you back?

The gospel reading at church yesterday was my favorite parable -- the Five Talents. This is the story from Matthew chapter 25, where Jesus is describing what the time of judgment will be similar to.

The parable of the Talents is the one where the landowner is going out of town and gives some money to 3 of his servants, "each according to his ability." One servant got 5 talents (a talent was about $15,000 in our money), one got 3 talents, and one got 1 talent.

When the master finally returns the servant with the 5 talents gives his master the original 5 plus 5 more. The servant with the 3 talents gives his master the original 3 talents, plus 3 more.  Both of them are praised and the master says "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord."

The servant who was given 1 talent says to the master "And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent into the ground." He gave the master the 1 talent back.

Of course the master is angry at this and takes the talent away and gives it to the servant with 10 talents (with the often misinterpretted line) "For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

Like you, I've heard and read that parable many times in my life.  And yet, on Sunday, I tuned into something that I've never thought of...The "unprofitable" servant (who's sometimes called the Lazy Servant) telling his master that he was afraid and THAT'S why he hid the talent and only had the one to return.

If we believe that each of us has been given specific gifts -- skills...abilities...strengths...(talents!) -- and that God gave those gifts to us for a reason, then as stewards of those gifts we're to grow them so we have abundance. 

Studies have shown that when we focus on those skills that come easiest to us they will grow and become even stronger.

The same can be said of our faith.  Just going to church is sort of just maintaining the status quo of faith, but when we get involved, study, reflect, and actually invest effort to grow our faith we grow our faith in abundance too.  So our faith is there for us in large amounts to get us through the challenges of life.

But when we're afraid to use our gifts they remain small.  They may even shrink. And that relates to our faith as well.

Ask yourself if you're using all your strengths and gifts at work.  Are you striving to grow those strengths and gifts?  Have you been asked to take on more responsibility or work in a different capacity but you've been afraid to?  Are you afraid to voice your opinion or manage in a way that's true to your Christian beliefs?  How does your fear impact your personal, professional, and spiritual growth?

I can tell you that I've felt called to use my gifts in a different way for the past few years and I've been resisting it for a few reasons.  The root of it though is I've been afraid.   But after hearing that parable again I've decided it's time to renew my commitment to God and to follow where He's calling me.  After all, if I REALLY believe then I have to believe He'll give me the strength to do what He's asking me, right?

I know I want to hear "Well done good and faithful servant...enter into the joy of your lord."  Don't you?

Are you growing in your gifts and talents?

I've been reading Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham.  I recently finished Living Your Strengths by Albert L. Winseman, the late Donald O. Clifton, and Curt Liesveld.  These books help the reader to embrace their God-given talents and discuss how in growing those talents lie our greatest opportunities for happiness and fulfillment at work and in our churches.

We certainly understand this on a cognitive level but embracing it as a way of living and working is difficult.   

It's difficult because we've been told all our lives to work hard to overcome our weaknesses rather than work hard to get even better at our strengths.

It's also hard because of the way the corporate universe is set up to reward outstanding performers.

Think about it...how do our companies usually reward us for being great at what we do?  They promote us to management!  This then actually REMOVES US from the work that we performed so well.  Managing and leading others requires a different set of skills than we used in our previous jobs.  Some people make this change effectively of course and excel in their new role after some adjustment.  Others however become miserable and some are even terminated because they performed poorly.

I'd love to see more companies embrace the concept that many people (most people in fact) are happiest doing work they do well and enjoy most. 

I'd also love to see people realizze that moving up is not the only pathway for career success.  When you think about it...what we probably want most is just more money!  Not the administrative stuff that comes with a promotion.  But we've been so ingrained with "moving up" as the expectation and definition of success...

What are your greatest talents?  What activities bring you the greatest joy and put you "in the zone"?  Do you have evidence that you're most productive and contribute to your department's bottom line when engaged in those activities?  How can you arrange your job so you can do them more frequently and become even better at your core talents?  How can you talk to your boss to modify your current job?  Chances are good that there are people in your department who love what you despise and who would be happy to do those tasks.

God gave you a unique set of talents, just as the landowner in the parable about the talents gave "talents' to his servants (Matthew 25:14-30).  Just as the landowner called his servants to give an account of how they managed those talents while he was gone, we'll be called one day to give an accounting of how we handled God's investment in us. 

Will you hear "Well done, good and faithful servant"?

PS.  If you'd like to learn more about identifying and putting your strengths to work, check out the book that started it all:  Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. You'll find a code in the book that will give you access to the Clifton Strengths Finder online assessment that will identfy your key strength themes.