Blessings and Blanks
We're not gratefully and
faithfully employing our blessings sufficiently for their intended purpose.
What has God given you and me? The simple
answer is "God has given us everything that is good," although, of
course, that answer is so trite and generalized, it's too easy to remain
unmoved in spite of the colossal scope of that simple truth. Much more helpful
is the simple but highly recommended spiritual exercise of listing each
specific blessing received from God. Go ahead and do that now - it should be
easy to come up with a fairly long list!
Then, make a parallel list: for each blessing
you've recorded, write how you've used that gift in God's service. If you're
like me, you will probably find more than one blank line in this second list,
indicators that we're not gratefully and faithfully employing our blessings
sufficiently for their intended purpose.
What's the point of this little exercise? To
help us digest the sobering principle in the last verse of this Sunday's
Gospel: "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and
still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more!" Certainly
we need to be ever grateful for all that God has given us, but when we take the
time to actually take stock of how much He's given us, we can't help but be
overwhelmed, as well as a bit sheepish, when we confront our own selfishness
and laziness in light of His generosity.
Can you imagine someone giving you a brand new
car? Wow! What incredible gratitude you would feel. But what if someone gave
you outright a beautiful new house? Oh! A lifetime of saying "Thank
you!" would be too little a response for that. But God gives us more than
a car or house, as Jesus explains: "Do not be afraid any longer, little
flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the KINGDOM!" No one could
give more than that! And having been entrusted with so much, what do we have to
show for it? I know I'm going to be busy today filling in some of those blanks
on my list - how about you?