When God gives your buddy 4 more talents than you.

WARNING: What I’m about to say is pretty uncomfortable and odds are you have never heard your pastor preach this on Sunday morning but I believe its biblical. You ready?

God.
Is.
Not.
Fair.

I know that sounds whacky but its true.

If your definition of fair is everyone gets the same thing every time then I hate to break it to you but the God of the bible is just not fair.

Here’s one BIG example...

In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells a parable where three servants are given 5 talents, 2 talents and 1 talent respectively.

Wait... what?

Back up.

Why would God give some more ‘talents’ than others?

Because God is not fair.

As uncomfortable as it sounds, the bible does teach that God obviously gives some people more talents, gifts and opportunities than others. For instance...

* Gods unfairness means you were born in America while someone else was born in the gutters of Ethiopia.

* It also means though I’m a good writer, I’ll probably never sell as many books as Donald Miller because God gave him a greater writing ‘capacity’.

[Those are good examples but lets dig a bit deeper...]

* It means God entrusts one pastor with a capacity to attract 10,000 while he entrusts another with a capacity to only attract 100.

* It means God gifted some musicians, speakers and artists to be a 5 out of a 10 while others are a 9 out of a 10.

[This next one might hurt a little]

* It means no matter how hard you work, you may never have the same influence/opportunities and platform as your buddy who does the exact same thing you do.

This is an uncomfortable truth but the good news is God does not judge us based on what someone else is doing.

No.

He judges us based on how faithful we are with what he has given us. Kingdom work is not a race to beat others. Its a race to be faithful with what YOU have.

So yea, God is not fair because he gave your buddy 4 more talents than you but its okay because though unfair, he is just and kind.

And that my friends is great news for ALL.

* Practically it means some of us need to stop beating ourselves up because we don’t measure up with someone else in our ‘field’.

* Maybe the reason he or she has greater influence is not because you’re less faithful but because you simply have been entrusted with less?

* Maybe you’re just not as good a leader/business man/student/singer as they are and you never will be?

* For others, it means stop pretending like you have 2 talents when you have like 5 because guess what, Jesus is gonna ask you what you did with 5 and not 2.

I constantly migrate between both camps.

There are days when I pout that I’ll never be as dynamic a speaker as Louie Giglio. Then there are days when in a stupid attempt to appear humble, I bury my talents like the dude in the parable.

The best days though are when I’m honest about my part in Gods story and my focus is on being faithful with what he gave me.

Those are the best days because I’m too busy delighting in the truth that I get to play such an awesome small role in his story that I don’t have room in my heart to wonder why he gave me less or more talents than someone else.

What about you? Will you be honest about your part in Gods story? What was stirring in you as you read this? Do you disagree with anything I said? Lets talk...

What camp do you lean in? Talent burier or comparison junkie?

Also, how have you seen not talking about this issue of capacity [God giving us different degrees of giftedness] affect our effectiveness as individuals and the church? Why is it so uncomfortable?

P:S: comment format has slight changed. Older comments will now appear first because dialogue flows easier chronologically. Please be Kind and share on face-book/twitter so your treasure may be HUGE in heaven:)