The story of the talents in Matthew 20 rings in my mind today.
The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
Many teachers of this scripture equate talents with money, time, gifts, abilities, etc. Basically, taking what God provides and using it rather than squandering it. So, my question is… if you have a handful of talents and find that you’re only using a few… how long will you allow the others to go unused?
You got to figure that out before the money, time, gifts, or abilities hit and leave your hand. For the master he released them into the care of someone else with the duration of a journey.
Whether your journey or season is one month or a year is irrelevant. You as a leader need to free your people up to help them know they have three months or one week. You cannot give them an objective without a time frame. The time you are given is measured only by how it was used. Important to this as well for a leader is to know that “to each they were given an amount appropriate to their abilities.” So, know your people's experiences, past failures, successes, and potential. Know enough to give them enough but also to help them grow.
To those who receive take comfort in knowing that the master never asked, “how did you double or gain with it.” We all have different abilities and the road to stewarding what is given us may have loss and profit. In the end it is important to keep advancing and thinking, and moving with what you have. For all we know the first two servants could have at first lost a little then gained a little. They could have split the talents among several investments. Who knows.. and that is the point… the master just wants to see what the end had brought.
As long as this is it is not exhaustive but I got to run. Hope this helps Gina.
In life and ministry you must determine that you need a start point and an endpoint.