My daughter is all sky blue and lime green, bold and full of life. She wants to show me how many chin-ups she can do, how high she can climb a tree, and how long she can crochet a winter scarf.
If I give her a limit to something, that’s automatically her cue to challenge me. And while this can be frustrating (!!!) on the discipline end, I could use a little of that boldness in my life.
Fear is a big filter for me, and I usually juggle it in my hands too long before jumping – or tip toeing – into something. If I had been one of the servants in the Parable of the Talents, I might have been the one who just buried his master’s gold in the backyard, too afraid to risk losing part of it. After all, isn’t it more responsible to undershoot something than overshoot and quite possibly squander the whole shebang?
“Still, for every time you thus overshoot your target, there are a hundred times that you undershoot it. In the famous Parable of the Talents, the servant who buries his master’s money in the ground is severely reprimanded for failing to do anything with it or take any risk. And the servant’s answer is very significant. It could be summarized in three words: I was afraid.”
Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder
The Lord handpicks our gifts and deposits them in our souls, and He doesn’t want us to keep them buried, afraid to let them see the light of day. When we do, the results aren’t pretty, as the master’s words in Jesus’ parable explains.
“ ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least?’ “
Matthew 25:26 The Message
