The servant with 7 talents...

No one knows just how much of a goober I really am more than myself. I know my hidden fears and inadequacies. I know when I am just putting up smoke and mirrors to make myself look better than I am. At times I fear what God puts in my hand. It just seems like too much. I want to represent him well but I know my own faults and I don't want my faults to reflect on who God is.

In the parable of the talents Jesus mentions the servant who was given 10 talents, one who was given 5 and one who was given 1. Both of the first two servants doubled their money but the last servant hid the talent. He didn't gain but he didn't lose either. He just didn't risk anything. Jesus praised the servants of 10 and 5 and rebuked the last with 1. I wish Jesus had included in his parable the servant who was given 7 talents.

The servant who was given the 7 invested the money the best he could but the investment went bad and he returned with only 2 talents. This is the guy I am interested in. Would Jesus still praise him?

Don't misunderstand me here. We haven't made some colossal mistake or lost anything. My point is not about loss but about the nature of risk. As missionaries, ministers, Christians, we take risks based on faith. God also "risks" by entrusting things, tasks, people to us. This is my main fear. If I live in "faith" and take on God's tasks, if I receive the 7 talents and do my best with them, what happens if the floor drops out? I know how faulty I am.

I know the "sunday school" answer is that the work is solely God's and I cannot accomplish anything on my own. God is sovereign over it all and he can ensure whatever outcome he wishes. I know that it is the very fact that he uses fallen humans that shows the extent of his grace, redemption, love and glory to me, those around me, as well as all creation, which, knowledge of God is creations chief end.

I know this but still at times Jesus' "burden is easy" starts to feel a bit heavier. Trusting God to accomplish his work even through a goober like me is where I need to stay. With God in control, maybe the apparent loss of the 7 talents brought about an entirely different kind of profit, this to say, that investing in God never results in loss.

I have such a love for God and such a desire to see his purposes fulfilled that I want to see the best of the best working for him and I just wouldn't place myself in that category.

I just know that I don't want to be the servant with one talent that didn't risk anything but I wonder what Jesus would have said about the servant with the 7 talents who, by his own idiocy, lost it all...