Still On Mission: Investing In God’s Kingdom
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture: Luke 19:11 – 27
11 As they were listening to this, He went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
I’m really good at beating myself up for all the things I don’t do or don’t do well enough. I have a pretty strong perfectionist streak that runs through my veins, demanding excellence. I work hard to not require the same impossible standards of others, but I usually have very little grace for myself in this area. The irony is that this perfectionism often manifests as procrastination. It unhelpfully paralyzes me, bringing about the exact imperfection I try so hard to avoid.
In Luke 17, Jesus tells a story about a man who went traveling. Before he left, he summoned 10 of his slaves to him and gave them each some money with which to conduct his business. When he returned, he discovered that one of his slaves, fearing his master, had buried the money rather than risk losing it. This slave was not rewarded. He lost everything.
I feel for this slave in Jesus’ story. If I were in the story, I expect I would be the one who buried the money. It probably wouldn’t be fear of the master. It more likely would be that I buried it until I could find the perfect investment – the investment least likely to fail or perhaps most likely to make money – only to never find such a risk-free opportunity and ultimately fail at the task completely.
God’s grace is everything for a perfectionist like me. God reminds me over and over again that He does not demand perfection of me. Instead, all He asks is that I be about His business in the world. I don’t think it’s an accident that in Jesus’ parable none of the slaves who invested the money, lost it. What seemed risky to the one who failed was not, in fact, so great a risk as he feared. What was required of him was not that he make a substantial return on his investment, but simply that he invest.
Knowing that the kingdom of God has come and knowing that it is yet to come in full, we are tasked with being about God’s business in the world until Jesus returns. We aren’t tasked with perfection. We are tasked with investing whatever God has given us in His mission in the world. Some will see greater return on their investment than others and that’s ok. What matters is not how exceptionally well we invest our gifts in God’s mission, but that we invest what God has given us.
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to take an honest look at your investment in God’s mission in the world. God has given you gifts to invest. What have you done or are you doing with those gifts? Have you buried them, waiting for the perfect opportunity or out of fear that you’ll do something wrong? Have you invested all He’s given you or only a portion of what He gave? Perhaps you’re not even sure that God has given you any gifts to invest. If that’s the case, as you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to ask someone you trust to speak truth into that lie; ask God to show you what He’s given and help you understand how you might invest.