May 21, 2013

Endearing

We hear a lot about people who are only one paycheck away from being homeless because they live from paycheck to paycheck. In some cases there are extenuating circumstances, but often the situation can be traced back to financial mismanagement. I can’t help but think about the Parable of the Shrewd Manager who, because of mismanagement, lost his job and was likely on the verge of homelessness. Calculating his future the manager evaluated his work qualifications, “I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg.” (Luke 16:3b NIV). Being credited with shrewdness, he endeared himself to his master’s debtors so that when he was jobless he would still be welcomed into their homes. I wonder if some of today’s mis-managers could avoid the homeless title if they too evaluated their options and then practiced endearing themselves to others.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----How important is truth? If nothing could be known and dealt with according to what it was and its actual interrelationships with everything else, could anything rise above the worst level of chaos? Yet truth is extraordinarily complicated in that the details of everything are boundless, and the permutations of their interrelationships are seemingly infinite. Yet the message of dealing with everything within the boundaries of its reality is amazingly simple.
-----It would seem this shrewd manager found a way around begging to survive. Indeed, he found his way into being cared for without working at all. But was it actually survival? His master spoke the realities of the shrewd manager - he was a son of this world, rather than of the light. As long as the world survived, the shrewd manager would live well.
-----But the little detail he missed was that the end of his time in this world was entirely the same as the end of his time as a manager. He tricked his master and even garnished a compliment for it. But there is no tricking The Master. And the survival of the soul is far more important than the survival of the body. Here, the truth about a couple details could have led to a more hideous looking, but wiser action - beg if you have to, and die if you will; just don’t trade in the truth you know for deception.

Love you all,
Steve Corey