" For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Matthew 25:29 (ESV)
The oxymoron in this verse has always stood out to me. How can one who has nothing, then have it taken from him? The obvious answer is he can't. However consider this with me, what do we tend to think or say when we have very little of something such as only a penny to our name? We claim to ourselves, and often to other, that we have nothing. It makes no logical sense to be looking at anything and say, "This is nothing!" Yet we still say it, It exist but it doesn't? Is it Schrodinger's cat? Schrodinger's cat only applies when we are not ,or if we can not be actively observing it. This is different. We are looking at a fairy and telling it that it doesn't exist!
Of course we have something, we have a penny, and by itself it is way too easy to dismiss. A hundred pennies wasted is a dollar wasted given enough time. Still doesn't seem like much and if we still look at it as nothing,we will trade it for nothing, throw it out or leave it be. What we now have in its' place is something worth - less than a penny. Think about that, an entire dollar made worth less than a penny. Alternatively one might say "It is salt that has lost its' saltiness"
The problem is we focus on a future that we cannot observe or we moan over an unchangeable past. The future neither is or isn't since we cannot observe it. The lessons from the past are altered by our current mindset. Each day we are given pennies (or daily bread) to observe and either appreciate or to ignore.You have millions of missing undervalued pennies in your life, we all do. Before long, another fortune will have either been wasted or put to good use one small penny at a time. Every little thing we are unfaithful or faithful with is another thing lost or gained. It is either valued or ignored.
Be it finances or life itself, if we are not faithful to do the little things that are easy to do, or even easier not to do, we forfeit our future lives one metaphorical penny at a time. The fact is, every penny and every choice has untold value. No matter how little it is worth it could be worth less. You can always trade it for nothing. As your choices grow, your life can becomes more apparent to other's seemingly out of nowhere. Thanks to God's grace it is never too late to start. Just accept responsibility for where you are at and repent of the mindset that got you here.
Stop saying, "I have nothing it's just a penny, I am just one person, It is just one choice." Just stop, it's a tiny lie and it is multiplying in our lives. God Gave you that penny, he gave you that breath and those choices. What God gives is always more than enough if we are simply faithful enough to accept it. Recall the widow giving all she had in the offering. Of this it was said, "...Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." Mark 12:43 (NIV)
God has given every life equal value. If we were to accept the value of one more breath today than we did yesterday, and do that everyday till the end of the year, how many more breaths will have realized their worth in just one year? The difference is how much went to something rather than nothing and how much of that something was good. To be blunt, those pennies are never actually lost for long. It always goes somewhere, anywhere really. Anywhere that recognizes it's value first in fact. That is how we wind up with big governments where most the power is in the hands of a few. Some are Good and some are Evil. Some are corrupted by it or become wasteful.
This is because even evil can recognize God's power, though we will all be called to account by God for what we harvest with that power. The pharisees in Luke 16 recognized this principle to amass earthly wealth, yet neglected the small eternal choices they were given each day. If you don't seize responsibility for your own life and or finances someone will. This is how millions of lives are used for things they don't agree with, simply because we refuse to cherish what we are given, so it is taken away.
No comments:
Post a Comment