Encourage Me: GIVE IT AWAY

Am (which is short for Amelio) Rich loved being a philanthropist now (from being a college professor). His good luck was due to winning the state lottery five years ago. He now had more money than he could ever spend in his lifetime. Investing his fortune wisely hadn’t hurt either. He, and his wife (a former third grade teacher), Supra of fifty years, finally had the money and time to do what they wanted to now during both of their times of retirement.

As their children had grown up and left home a long time ago, there family at this point in their lives consisted of their two miniature poodles, Edward and Bella. Currently, they were about to leave the cold temperature of Ladeesville, Ohio, and head for their winter home in sunny Orlando, Florida.

Before that happened, Am had some financial business to settle with his three friends, ShaNeal, Mershon, and Abuelo. He wanted his three friends to make some charitable donations for him while he was hibernating in Florida with his wife and dogs. The three men could give him investment reports (for tax purposes) when he returned in the spring.

ShaNeal was given $2,000, 000.00. Mershon was given $800,000.00, and Abuelo was given $400,000.00. Spring soon arrived in Ladeesville, and so did the Rich family. When the four men finally met at a nearby Italian restaurant, ShaNeal spoke first.

“I doubled your money by investing in stocks.” ShaNeal handed Am the report across the table as they all ate. Am was pleased with what he read.

Mershon was next. “I effectively doubled the impact of your money by donating it to a wonderful organization called, ‘The Speaking Brigade.’ Volunteers do live and recorded readings for the blind on the radio.” Once again Am was very pleased with the progress report he received from The Speaking Brigade.

Last but not least was Abuelo. “I did nothing with your money as I did not want to disappoint you if I failed. I kept the money in a shoebox under my bed.” Am could almost taste the disappointment he felt with his friend. Abuelo had never been a good choice, as he was a bit strange in personality. Am wanted Abuelo to leave his presence as soon as possible.[i]

BIBLICAL INSPIRATION:
⁶Among those young men were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from the tribe of Judah. ⁷Ashpenaz gave them Babylonian names. Daniel’s new name was Belteshazzar, Hananiah’s was Shadrach, Mishael’s was Meshach, and Azariah’s was Abednego. (Daniel 1:6-8)

¹⁴“At that time God’s kingdom will also be like a man leaving home to travel to another place for a visit. Before he left, he talked with his servants. He told his servants to take care of his things while he was gone. ¹⁵He decided how much each servant would be able to care for. The man gave one servant five bags of money. He gave another servant two bags. And he gave a third servant one bag. Then he left.

¹⁶The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money. Those five bags of money earned five more. ¹⁷It was the same with the servant who had two bags. That servant invested the money and earned two more. ¹⁸But the servant who got one bag of money went away and dug a hole in the ground. Then he hid his master’s money in the hole.

¹⁹“After a long time the master came home. He asked the servants what they did with his money. ²⁰The servant who got five bags brought that amount and five more bags of money to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you trusted me to care for five bags of money. So I used them to earn five more.’

²¹“The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with that small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’

²²“Then the servant who got two bags of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of money to care for. So I used your two bags to earn two more.’

²³“The master answered, ‘You did right. You are a good servant who can be trusted. You did well with a small amount of money. So I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my happiness with me.’

²⁴“Then the servant who got one bag of money came to the master. The servant said, ‘Master, I knew you were a very hard man. You harvest what you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not put any seed. ²⁵So I was afraid. I went and hid your money in the ground. Here is the one bag of money you gave me.’

²⁶“The master answered, ‘You are a bad and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest what I did not plant and that I gather crops where I did not put any seed. ²⁷So you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came home, I would get my money back. And I would also get the interest that my money earned.’

²⁸“So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags. ²⁹Everyone who uses what they have will get more. They will have much more than they need. But people who do not use what they have will have everything taken away from them.’ ³⁰Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside into the darkness, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’ (Matthew 25:14-30)

¹¹As the crowd listened to what he was saying, Jesus went on to tell a story. He was now near Jerusalem and knew that the people thought it was almost time for God’s kingdom to come. ¹²So he said, “A very important man was preparing to go to a country far away to be made a king. Then he planned to return home and rule his people. ¹³So he called ten of his servants together. He gave a bag of money to each servant. He said, ‘Do business with this money until I come back.’ ¹⁴But the people in the kingdom hated the man. They sent a group to follow him to the other country. There they said, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵“But the man was made king. When he came home, he said, ‘Call those servants who have my money. I want to know how much more money they earned with it.’ ¹⁶The first servant came and said, ‘Sir, I earned ten bags of money with the one bag you gave me.’ ¹⁷The king said to him, ‘That’s great! You are a good servant. I see that I can trust you with small things. So now I will let you rule over ten of my cities.’

¹⁸“The second servant said, ‘Sir, with your one bag of money I earned five bags.’ ¹⁹The king said to this servant, ‘You can rule over five cities.’

²⁰“Then another servant came in and said to the king, ‘Sir, here is your bag of money. I wrapped it in a piece of cloth and hid it. ²¹I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You even take money that you didn’t earn and gather food that you didn’t grow.’

²²“Then the king said to him, ‘What a bad servant you are! I will use your own words to condemn you. You said that I am a hard man. You said that I even take money that I didn’t earn and gather food that I didn’t grow. ²³If that is true, you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came back, my money would have earned some interest.’ ²⁴Then the king said to the men who were watching, ‘Take the bag of money away from this servant and give it to the servant who earned ten bags of money.’

²⁵“The men said to the king, ‘But sir, that servant already has ten bags of money.’

²⁶“The king said, ‘People who use what they have will get more. But those who do not use what they have will have everything taken away from them. ²⁷Now where are my enemies? Where are the people who did not want me to be king? Bring my enemies here and kill them. I will watch them die.’” (Luke 19:11-27)

BIBLICAL PARTICIPANTS:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, unnamed master in the Parable of the Talents (Parable of the Loaned Money), and the three unnamed servants

[i] Adapted from the 2011 America Star book, All for One: the Towns of Ohio Complete Trilogy by Robert A. Kinker, part two (“They’re Just Like Us”), chapter one. All scripture is from the Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) of the Bible.