By David Ryser
“Will you at least give it a try?”
I was attempting to convince a high
school student to make an effort to complete his class work. Or even to start on it. He was in danger of failing the class, in
great part because he refused to complete any of his assignments. He seemed to be capable of passing the course
if he would just do the work.
Didn’t he know he could fail the
class? Yes.
Over time, I realized this young
man was failing the class because he was afraid he might fail it. This didn’t make much sense to me at
first. If he was concerned about
failing, why didn’t he work hard to succeed?
Then it hit me.
This young man wasn’t afraid of
failing. He was afraid of being a
failure. If he put his best effort into
the class and failed, he would be a failure.
But if he put no effort into the class and failed, he could always tell
himself that he could have passed the class if he had tried. He was willing to fail…but on his own terms.
He was afraid that his best wasn’t
good enough.
I thought about this young man
recently while I was reading the Parable of the Talents (Matthew
25:14-30). In this familiar parable, a
nobleman is preparing to go on a long journey.
He calls his servants together and distributes money to each of them to
do business with until his return. He
doles out the money to them according to their ability. To one he gives 5 talents. To another he gives 2 talents. To the third, he gives 1 talent.
Then he leaves.
It helps us to understand this
parable when we realize that a talent is a lot of money. A talent was the largest unit of money in
Jesus’ day. One talent was worth 3,000
shekels. 3,000 shekels was approximately
10 years’ wages for the average working man.
So even the man who had 1 talent was in possession of something that had
great value.
Then one day, the nobleman returned
from his journey.
The nobleman calls his servants
together to give an account of what they did with the money he had given to them. Each of the first two servants had done
business and doubled his money. The
third had buried his talent. He had not
lost it. But he had not increased it.
His explanation for his failure
sounds familiar to me.
The third servant defended his failure
by explaining that he was afraid to fail.
He feared his master’s displeasure and was afraid he might lose his
talent if he did business with it. He
was afraid that his best might not be good enough. So he didn’t risk the talent he was given. Instead, he buried it. He returned the unused talent back to his
master.
The master was not pleased.
I run into this kind of person both
in life and in the ministry. Many times
they have big dreams about what they will be and what they will do. They have the call of God on their
lives. God has deposited spiritual
gifts, a measure of faith, and the Holy Spirit into them.
And they do nothing with what God
has given to them.
I spoke recently with someone who
has the call of God to preach. This call
burns in him. He is frustrated because
he is not doing what God called him to do.
I could hear the frustration and pain in his voice as he told me about
it. He confided to me that recently he
had been approached by one of the pastors in his church. The pastor asked him to preach.
The young man said no.
How can this be? God has called this young man to preach. An opportunity to preach has been presented
to him. And he refused!
How did this happen?
In the time since God called him,
this young man has had a number of disappointing things happen to him. People he trusted let him down. Promises made to him were broken. Things didn’t work out like he thought they
would. Over time, all of his dreams have
died.
Except for one.
The dream of being an evangelist is
the only dream he has left. It is his
sole source of hope for his life. As
long as that dream is alive, he is not a failure.
What if he accepts the invitation
to preach and makes a mess of it? What
if his last dream dies also? It would
devastate him!
In the Parable of the Talents, the
servant who buried his talent ultimately suffered everything he feared. He is proclaimed as wicked, lazy, and
worthless (verses 26 and 30). He loses
his talent (verse 28). And he is thrown
out of his master’s house (verse 30).
Do you suppose he felt better about
himself because he failed on his own terms?
I think not.
What if he had invested his talent
and lost it? How would his master have
reacted? We will never know. But could his fate have been any worse? It may help to reread the parable and note
that the servants were never commanded to make money.
They were simply told to do their
master’s business. So are we.
So whatever happened to the high
school student who was afraid to fail?
Did he pass the class? Did he
succeed in life?
I don’t’ know. I was just a substitute teacher. I was with him for only a few days.
I never saw him again.
What will happen to the
evangelist-to-be? Will he risk his
dream? Will he put his talent to use and
possibly fail? I hope so.
And what about you?
Responses to this article are
welcomed. You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com
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