April 05, 2012
Well Done
Most of us
can look back over many years of service to our church, our community and our
country. My four years on City Council are coming to an end and although I am
weary and looking for a time of rest, I confidently lay claim to Jesus’ words
in the Parable of the Talents, “Well
done, good and faithful servant!” Well, I was confident until I let the
complete verse register in my mind, “…Well
done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I
will put you in charge of many things…” (Matt 25:23 NIV) Now I’m getting
nervous. Exactly what does it mean to be put in charge of many things?
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----The spite and vitriolic envy held by the left for Bill Gates, Mitt Romney, the Bush family, fat cat bankers, and folks like these might spark some understanding of charge over many things. It is interesting that the equally wealthy Hollywood stars and other money oozing entertainers are not despised by these leftists. Wealth is not the core issue. Bill Gates made computers workable by ordinary people. In fact, he made many computers workable, hundreds of millions of them. Generally speaking, hundreds of millions of individual lives have been moved forward by what Bill Gates did. He brought a beneficial idea out of his head and spread it around the world. Likewise, Mitt Romney’s faithfulness to skills he developed scooped up thousands of failing businesses and rebuilt them into successes which then produced not only more goods for consumers but more jobs for them as well (we shall economically collapse from failing to understand that consumers MUST also be producers.) The evil Georges distributed oil to where people needed it, and fat cat bankers keep money flowing to where capital is required. Of course, they are all just like you and me. They want paid for what they do! And since they did a whole lot they got paid a whole lot by the billions of people each enjoying a bit of what they did and paying just a bit for it. They were faithful to an economic system which provided opportunity to whomever had the simple clarity of soul to reach out and take it. Then the taking of one opportunity develops another, and the taking of that develops two more. The responsibility to take the opportunity remains with the individual, which places the development of his charge over many things also with himself. This is not good for central control.
-----Central control wants to do the putting in charge over many things. And for sure, central control is not a total, drooling idiocy. It is smart enough to understand that at least some ability is required of one in charge. But just as certainly, central control requires a second ability, an ability of faithfulness to central control, an ability having even a promotional aspect about it. Central control needs one thing above all else: promotion of itself as the all enduring, all wise, all powerful protector and benefactor of the little peons greedily sideling up to its monstrosity for even their most basic subsistence.
-----In Jesus’ parable, the master apparently plays a role of central control. But that appearance fades as we see him buying and selling and wheeling and dealing too. And all too often we see our God as a character of central control. But He is the farthest thing from it. He is the God of intimate control, if we might be mentally flexible enough to understand systemic influence and outright inspiration as “control.” He wants nothing to do with robots willing to spout gratuitous flatteries to achieve positions of charge. He wants the living being having become shaped into the gracious goodness of mutual benefit to exert the more influence upon what happens all around. And that is kind of what it means to be in charge over more. It is kind of like: go live what you understand about God and His love, and live it as big as you are able. Out of that, things will work.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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