Dig up your talent

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

A.W. Tozer

“And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’

Matthew 25:24-25

If you’re going to use your bat as a bat and not a rolling pin, you’re going to have to change the way you think about God. 

This is something I’ve been wrestling with for years. 

I’ve sat through weeks of teaching on the grace of God, the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the patience of God, and the kindness of God over the course of my life. All of it was great. 

I was in the front row calling out “amen” and “that’s good” and all the other cliche shouts you hear in church. All of them were sincere. I wanted to believe every word that was coming out of the preacher’s mouth. If anyone had asked me I would have said that I did believe them. 

But the life I was living and have continued to live point to something different. 

I’ve been the third servant in the parable most of my life. I’ve hidden my talent in the ground. I’ve twisted my gifts and talents so they’ll fit in a box that comes with a good paycheck. I’ve been running from who I really am and the things God has given me. 

Why? 

Because there are questions that live in my mind. 

“What if God really isn’t that good?”

“What if God isn’t really with me?” 

“What if God doesn’t come through?”

“What if God isn’t faithful?” 

None of these are based on the Word. They all come from my own experience and even the experiences of others. And they’ve built up a stronghold of lies in my mind. They play on repeat in my mind every time I think about using my gifts. 

“What if it doesn’t work out?” 

“What if your family suffers because you choose to do this?”

“Did God really say…?”

But every question, every lie, that comes up in my mind stems from this one question…

“What if God really isn’t that good?” 

Everything in His Word points to the opposite. But I believe my experience more than I believe His Word. The image of God I’m made in is not the image of God I hold in my mind. 

Has that ever happened to you? Is it happening to you right now? 

What if you and I chose to believe the opposite of the lies running on repeat in our minds? What if we changed the narrative about God in our heads and hearts? What do you think would happen? 

What do you think would have happened to the servant with one talent if He really knew his Master? I don’t think he would have buried that talent in the ground. I don’t think he would have been cast out. I think he would have joined his coworkers in the market and doubled his money, maybe even tripled it. Who knows? We’ll never know because he believed his own thoughts more than he believed the truth. 

If what we think about God really is the most important thing about us, then I think it’s time to change what I believe about God. 

It’s time to look at the overwhelming amount of evidence for God’s goodness, God’s faithfulness, God’s love, and God’s grace. Not only in the Word, but in my own life as well. 

God has always proven true, always shown himself faithful, always been loving despite my greatest attempts to make Him not love me. 

And it’s time to see Him for who He is. I know this is a process. I know it doesn’t happen in a day. But it’s high time to do it. I’m ready to stop using my bat as a rolling pin. 

And if you’re reading this, I think you are, too. I also think God is ready. He’s waiting for His sons to realize they are living lives so far below the standard He’s called us to. 

And it’s not too late. I wonder what the third servant would have done if some time during his Master’s trip he realized what He believed about Him was a lie. What if he realized He wasn’t a hard man? What if he realized He wasn’t a strict taskmaster? What if his eyes were opened to the truth? 

I think he would have dug his talent out of the ground as quickly as he could and ran to the market to join his fellow servants. 

And if you’re like me, I think that’s what God is inviting us to do today. He wants us to dig up our talents and run toward His purpose. He wants us to leave the confines of the substandard beliefs that have shaped our substandard lives. 

He’s inviting us to believe, to put away childish things, to become men. 

If you made it this far and this spoke to you in any way, I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email at sheep@sheepish.life. I read all of them.