You Don’t Have to Be a Five

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:23

For those who need a refresher on the story behind this verse—or who haven’t heard it before—Jesus is telling the Parable of the Talents.

A master was preparing to leave on a journey and entrusted his property to three servants. One was given five talents, another two, and another one. A “talent” in this passage was a very large unit of money.

When the master returned, the servant who had received five talents had turned them into ten. The servant who received two had turned them into four. But the servant who received one had buried it in the ground. He handed back exactly what he had been given, along with an explanation for why he had done nothing with it.

Here is something we sometimes overlook:

The servant with five talents and the servant with two talents received the same praise.

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The master didn’t look at the second servant and say, “Four is nice, but look what this guy did with five!”

He didn’t compare them.

He looked at what each one had been entrusted with and whether that person had been faithful with it.

Today, when we hear the word “talent,” we usually think of an ability. Someone can sing beautifully. Someone can draw. Someone can walk onto a chaotic jobsite and somehow have everyone, everything, and every deadline under control. Someone else can pick up a camera and capture something the rest of us would have walked right past.

We all have different abilities, and some people are naturally better at certain things than others.

Think about a construction site.

Maybe one guy is an incredible finish carpenter. Give him a complicated set of plans and a pile of material, and what he produces is almost artwork. Another guy may never have that kind of precision with finish work—but put him in charge of coordinating crews, solving problems, keeping materials moving, and getting the job across the finish line, and he thrives.

What would happen if the second guy spent his entire day staring at the carpenter thinking, I’ll never be as good as he is, instead of doing the job he had been equipped to do?

The whole jobsite would suffer. Not because he lacked talent. Because he was so busy measuring his gifts against someone else’s that he stopped using his own.

And that brings us to something that happened recently at Boss.

We have a pretty awesome team, and there have been some changes over the years. Right now, we work with a local media company that handles our social media, photography, video, and quite a few other things. Because anyone familiar with small businesses knows that job titles tend to become more like general suggestions. 😂

Recently, our media guy was talking with our Laser Engraving Supervisor/Director of Special Projects at Boss—a very official-sounding title that's really more of an inside joke.

They were discussing photos for a new product we have coming in November. He told her he would send some product photos and that he would do his best.

She told him she was confident they would be great and that she really liked the work he had already provided for Boss.

A little later in the conversation, he said that product photography wasn’t necessarily what he considered his strongest area.

She replied that Boss was happy with the work he has provided!

And his response was essentially: “God has blessed me then.”

That comment struck like lightning. He didn’t say, “Of course they’ll be great. I’m really good at this.”

He didn’t list his accomplishments. He didn’t compare himself to another photographer. He didn’t need to convince anyone that he was the most talented person in the room. He simply acknowledged where the ability came from.

God has blessed me.

There is a tremendous amount of humility packed into four little words.

And there is also confidence.

Biblical humility does not mean pretending we aren’t good at something.

If God has given you an ability, you don’t have to deny that ability in order to be humble. You can recognize that you are good at something while still recognizing the One who gave you the ability in the first place.

The servant with two talents didn't bury them because somebody else had five. Think about that.

He could have looked across the room and thought, Why did he get five? Why did I only get two? Does the master think he is better than me? Maybe my two aren't even worth bothering with.

But he didn’t. He took what he had been entrusted with and went to work.

And when his master returned?

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The same words spoken to the man who had five.

Then we have the third servant. He received one talent—and buried it.

When the master returned, this servant had plenty of reasoning for why he had done nothing. But the master wasn’t impressed by his excuses. In fact, he told him that at the very least he could have put the money in the bank and allowed it to earn interest.

In other words: You could have done something with what I gave you.

That question has been sitting here: What are we burying? What ability has God given us that we have convinced ourselves isn’t worth using because someone else appears to have more?

How often do we look at someone else's five talents and become embarrassed by our two? Or our one?

How many times have we said: I’m not as good as they are. Someone else could do it better. I don’t know enough. I’m not ready. What if I fail?

And meanwhile, the talent stays buried.

God never asked the servant with two talents to produce what the servant with five produced.

He asked him to be faithful with his two.

Maybe someone else is a better photographer. Maybe somebody else knows Scripture better.

Maybe somebody else can build it faster, speak more eloquently, lead more confidently, sing more beautifully, run the business better, or reach more people.

Okay? So what? What has God put in your hands?

Perhaps the goal was never to become the person with five talents.

Perhaps the goal is to someday stand before the Lord knowing that whatever He entrusted to us—five, two, or one—we didn't bury it.

We used it. We developed it. We shared it. We gave Him the glory for it.

And when someone noticed something good that came from it, instead of needing the credit for ourselves, maybe we could simply say:

“God has blessed me.”

And keep faithfully using what He gave us. 

COVER IMAGE CREDIT