Invest it, don't bury it
The parable of the talents
A master entrusts three servants with differing amounts and leaves. Two put what they were given to work and double it; the master's verdict to each is the same — well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many. The third, afraid, buries his single talent and returns it untouched, and loses even that.
The difference is not the size of the trust but what they did with it. Faithfulness invests; fear buries. And the reward for proving trustworthy with a little is being entrusted with much more.
“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things.”
— The master, in Jesus' parable — Matthew 25:23 (WEB)
Faithfulness with little earns greater trust, and timid burying forfeits it. Invest what you are given; don't bury it in fear.
“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won't serve obscure men.”
The faithful servants invested; the fearful one buried. A leader formed here puts what he has been entrusted with to work, refusing to let fear bury the gift. He knows greater scope is earned by faithfulness with the present trust. The inner work is overcoming the fear that hoards rather than invests.
Put your current trust to work rather than playing it safe, and entrust greater responsibility to those who have proven faithful with less. Watch for the fear that makes people bury their gifts, and free them to invest. Reward faithful investment, not mere preservation. Develop people by giving them real responsibility to steward.
Leaders confuse careful preservation with faithfulness, missing that the fearful servant who merely protected the trust was condemned. The blind spot is mistaking risk-averse burying for responsible stewardship.
Identify one thing you have been entrusted with that you have been burying out of fear — a gift, a role, an opportunity. This week, take one concrete step to invest it rather than protect it.
Greater responsibility is rarely handed out as a reward for potential; it is entrusted to those who have proven faithful with less. And the great enemy of that faithfulness is not laziness so much as fear — the fear that buries the gift rather than risking it.
Are you investing what you have been entrusted with, or burying it out of fear — and what would faithful investment of your current trust actually look like?