The Sentence God Spoke That Wrecked me

Last week I told you deception feels exactly like conviction.

Today I want to show you what it costs.

There is a specific kind of deception that does not just keep you stuck. It makes you bury the very thing God gave you to spend, and it convinces you that burying it is the faithful thing to do.

I know, because I almost did it.

The Sentence I Can't "Unhear"

I was in the middle of a transition I did not want.

I was fighting it. Making the reasonable case for staying where I was. Loyal. Comfortable. Telling myself that staying put was the humble, godly, responsible move.

Then God said something to me that I have not been able to shake since.

He said, "I take the spending of My five talents just as seriously as I expect you to take the spending of your five talents."

You may want to read that a couple more times, I did when God spoke it to me, I have been replaying in my head for weeks actually...

He was not asking me to protect what He gave me. He was asking me to spend it. And He was telling me He takes that spending as seriously as He expects me to.

That reframed everything. The gifts are not mine to guard. They are His capital, placed in my hands, with an expectation of return.

We Turned A Severe Warning Into A Cute Story

Most of us learned the Parable of the Talents as a nice lesson about using your skills.

It is not a nice lesson.

Read it again. Matthew 25. A master hands his servants his own money before a journey. One gets five talents, one gets two, one gets one. The first two put the money to work and double it. The third digs a hole and buries his.

When the master comes back, he does not gently coach the third man. He calls him wicked and lazy and takes the talent away from him.

Here is what we skip. The master was not angry that the servant lost the money. He never lost a dime. It was all still there, safe in the ground.

The master was angry that he buried it out of fear.

Safe was the sin. Buried was the sin. Protecting it instead of spending it was the sin.

Burying Has A Lot Of Respectable Names

This is where it gets uncomfortable, because burying your talent almost never looks like rebellion.

It looks responsible. It looks loyal. It looks like keeping the peace.

You bury it to stay comfortable, and you call it contentment.

You bury it to keep a leader happy who has never understood your design, and you call it submission.

You bury it to avoid the hard conversation or the risky move, and you call it patience.

You sit on the gift for years in an environment that has no idea what to do with it, and you tell yourself you are being faithful by staying.

That is the deception from last week wearing a work uniform. It feels like conviction. It is actually fear with a better vocabulary.

The servant who buried his talent had reasons too. Read his defense. He sounds careful. He sounds cautious. He sounds exactly like a lot of good people I know.

The master was not impressed by his reasons. He was grieved by his fear.

God Expects A Return

This is the part that should sit heavy, in a good way.

God placed real capital in you. Gifts. Wiring. Instincts. A specific way you see and build and lead that nobody else carries the same way.

He did not hand it to you so you could keep it safe until you die.

He handed it to you expecting a return. And He takes the spending of it just as seriously as He expects you to.

That cuts both ways, and that is the hope in it. If He takes your talents that seriously, then He is not going to leave you buried forever. He will keep pressing on the thing you keep protecting until you finally dig it up and put it to work.

The transition I was fighting? I stopped fighting it. Not because it got easy. Because I finally understood that staying safe was the one thing He would not bless.

One More Thing

This is the center of the whole series, and it runs right through Ravens and Algorithms. Recognizing what God sends is half of it. Refusing to bury what He already put in you is the other half.

If this one landed, the book goes deeper.

Click → RAVENS AND ALGORITHMS

God gave you capital, not a keepsake.

Stop guarding it. Start spending it.

Onward,

Chris Behnke

P.S. Next week I want to warn you about what happens the moment you finally dig up the talent and start building. The opposition changes. It stops looking like an attack and starts looking like an invitation. I will show you how Nehemiah handled it in seven words. Do not miss it.