His excuses are on repeat in my mind:
- Master is a hard man
- Master reaps where he does not sow
- Master gathers where he scattered no seed
- Fear-- the servant was scared.
He hid that one talent under a heap of justification of why he did nothing with his master's talent.
I'm standing over the gravesite of the hidden talent, and I hear, "Even here, I can still do it."
God can still do it in the graveyard of broken dreams and forsaken goals.
He can, and He did.
Let's go through the list:
- Abraham was one-hundred years old when he had Isaac. We all know Sarah's womb was defunct at the age of ninety-nine. That alone should encourage us that impossibility is not an issue for God. He is able.
- Noah had no idea how to build an ark, but God instructed him-- God gave him the blueprints to make it happen.
- Gideon hid from the Philistines, but God called him a mighty warrior, who then led an army of 300 men that defeated forces more than ten times their size.
- Because of God's grace in his life, Joseph climbed the social ladder from the prison to the palace.
- The walls of Jericho, the most fortified town of that time, came down with shouts of praise from an otherwise ill-equipped people.
- John the Baptist had no Instagram, no Facebook live feed and no Twitter following. In the desert, he just had his voice to bring about repentance in Israel, and the masses came.
Now that's just about 0.000000000000000009% of God's resume. He did so much more with the outcast and the overlooked.
And He's willing to do greater with you.
It's not complicated. Yes, it's hard, but the excuses that are holding you back, the reasons you think God cannot do it, are the very reasons why He wants to do it through you.
There is nothing (inward or outward) that can disqualify you from God's calling over your life; if there was, that would mean the cross is useless: Jesus would have died for nothing then.
But that's not the truth. His blood covers everything-- a multitude of sins and excuses.
You are free to do what He assigned you.
Even in the graveyard, under all the dirt and mess you've placed above your talent, God can and will do it here and now.
And I know that the excuses don't disappear. If they do, they come back more sinister, more warped than before, but God is not intimidated by them. Neither should you be.
If the servant was willing to not just acknowledge his justifications, but challenge them as well, those lies would have fallen away.
Maybe the Master's goodness would have been revealed to him if he took that one step. Maybe the servant would have noticed his Master's hand in places that he thought were void of the Master's workings. Maybe the fear of upsetting the Master would have gave way with the realization that remaining stagnant, living stuck pissed Him off so much more than making a mistake.
Excuses are reality until they are not.
When you take that first step you realize, "It's not as bad as I made it out to be."
Yea, you don't have the funds, but that's not your forever.
Yea, you aren't good enough now, but that's not your forever if you choose to invest in it anyway.
Yea, you have five followers, but if you keep typing, keep speaking, keep going that number can grow.
But you'll never know if you keep the talent buried; if you hide the light He's placed inside of you, the circumstances that keep you timid will not change.
What are you waiting for?
You're in the most perfect position; yes, knee deep in dirt is perfect. Water that talent with the Word of God. Feed it with your dedication and discipline. Let His light shine through it, and watch it grow.
