I want to change the world, don’t you? It’s hard not to, looking around at a world that is so broken. Unfortunately, that is an unrealistic goal. This is the case for a couple of reasons. 

First, lack of power. We do not have the power to change the world, and we never will. The world is too big, and we are too small. On top of that, real change only comes through changed hearts. That is something only God can do. We cannot change the world. We do not have the power to do so. God, however, does.

Second, we lack the motivation and the energy. We are all very lazy people. I’ll be the first to admit that. We may say we want to help, but oftentimes we will find ourselves binge-watching the next big hit on Netflix before we’ll ever go out and serve the community.

We can’t change the world, but we don’t have to. Each of us does, however, have a real sense of personal responsibility in this world to do what God has called us to do. Jesus has a lot of helpful and convicting things to say about this in His parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30). In this parable, a master goes away on a journey, and he entrusts each of his three servants with a bit of his fortune. To one servant he gives five talents, another three, and to the last he gives just one talent. When the master comes back, he discovers that the servants to whom he gave the five talents and the two talents have each doubled the money. To them he says, “You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (v. 21, 23). But the last servant, the one who was given only one talent, buried it in a hole so that he would not lose it. To this servant the master said, “You wicked and slothful servant!” (v. 26), as he threw him into the “outer darkness” (v. 30).

If you think about this story in the context of your own life, it can suddenly become very jarring. Which servant are you? We all like to think of ourselves as the wise servants who invested their money, but oftentimes I find this not to be true, at least in my own life.

I think Jesus wants to drive home a point. A point that, yes, can be a bit scary. But in the end it is actually hopeful. The point is this: God gives each and every one of us everything we need to carry out His mission for us in this world. This is scary because it puts a certain level of responsibility on us as God’s servants. But it’s also hopeful, because it means that God has provided us everything that we need in order to faithfully carry out those responsibilities. In other words, we do not have to do more than God has put us in a position to do. Neither, however, can we do less.

What does this have to do with the parable? God gave each of those three servants a certain number of talents and expected them to make use of them. He did not expect each servant to produce the same amount of money, but rather He expected each servant to produce a certain profit according to what they were given. What have you been given? Maybe you think that you have not been given as much as the wealthy family sitting next to you in the pew on Sunday mornings. But you have been given something. Invest it.

The talents God has entrusted to each of us not only includes physical or spiritual resources, but also gives opportunities. Each opportunity put in front of us is a talent given to us by our master that we are meant to invest. Perhaps your ‘talent’ is a man on the side of the road in need of assistance with his car.  To pass by is to bury that talent. To stop and help, however, is to invest it. Each of us passes by thousands of these kinds of situations in our lives. Perhaps, each time we see someone in our path who is need, it is not simply an inconvenient duty for the Christian to handle. Instead, we should see it for what it is: a time for us to invest in the Kingdom.

Proper investment of the gifts God has given us is not a one-time thing. It is a life-time of choices, often little ones. We all have resources, talents, ideas, and opportunities that can be used to bless people. And we are expected to invest them wisely, that we may one day enter into the joy of our Master.

Adeolu Eletu