THE SECOND SERVANT

I've always wanted to be the servant who at the end of the day comes before her master and hears Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" As I understood it (and maybe was even taught this), the way to accomplish that was to work real hard and multiply what my Master entrusted me with.

Yesterday, I sat down and re-read the parable from Matthew 25. I suspected that my interpretation of the story previously had been skewed by a false perception of a performance based God and I wanted to read it with fresh eyes.

Here's what I think that Jesus' point of telling this story is: What God desires from us is faithfulness, not productivity.

If the Master's goal had been productivity, the second servant would not have been commended. I mean, what he had to offer in the end was not even half of what the first guy started with! If the master had wanted productivity, I could imagine the second guy thinking to himself, "What? The master only gave me 2 bags of silver? I'll show the master what I can really do!" And then going out, working really hard and coming back with 5 bags of silver but being all worn out and bitter at the master.

That's not our God though. Ours is a God who commends His servants for being faithful with what He allots them.

What then has God entrusted me with? And how faithful am I being with it?