As we round out summer, I hope you’re doing well and preparing for the most amazing season of Fall! 🍂

Pumpkin spice is beginning it’s ever-faithful takeover, but you probably already knew that. ;)

I’m going to tell you something, but don’t hate me:

I don’t love pumpkin spice stuff. 🫣

I like pumpkin things, but the “spice” part really isn’t so much my jam.

From the looks of global sales of pumpkin spice lattes, however, I am in the minority on this one…

That’s ok – I’m cool with that! 

We’ve all got the things we like/don’t like, right?

(Psttt! If you’re not a die-hard pumpkin spice person, you can tell me. Your secret is safe with me! ;) )

—-

All that is NOT what I intended to write to you about today, but sometimes I think it’s better to just let my fingers dance across the keyboard and decide what’s going to land on the page…You never really know what you’re going to get.

What I MEANT to share with you today was something on my heart from something Jesus said in a teaching on the end times.

I won’t put the entire parable here, but you should totally open your Bible to Matthew 25:14-30 to check it out for yourself.

The Amanda-rundown-version on that, though, is something like this:

A master is going away for a while and while he’s gone he entrusts his servants with his resources (aka- money, in this story). Each servant got a different amount, based on the master’s understanding of what they were capable of handling. When the master came back from his journey, he wanted to see what each of his servant’s did to steward his resources well.

Two of the three servants decide to use the things the master entrusted to them and multiply them; one of the servants hid the goods out of fear… 

Just read the quick story to get the whole scoop, but for now, to the two who stewarded the master’s resource well, he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” 

I could go a lot of different directions with allllll the things on my mind in this particular part of Scripture, but for today I want to point out a couple of things:

1. The master entrusted each of his people with something.
2. He intended for them to use what he gave them.
3. He got to decide (as the master, knowing his people) who got what and how much of it.
4. The “Well Done” came because the servant was good and faithful with what they were entrusted with.

For the sake of my teacher-heart, let me elaborate a little on each point.

And just to be clear here, the master in the story is representative of Jesus, and we (His beloved) are the servants in the story. Got it? 

To points above, God has entrusted each and every one of us with something. We are carriers of spiritual gifts and talents and passions and burdens. He has given us those things with the intention that we would use them – that we would invest them in the world around us. 

God gets to decide who gets what gifts and talents, as well as how much of them and the various opportunities that we will get to use and amplify those things. God decides; we don’t. 

We, however, have the great choice of whether or not we will lean into those things and use them – in whatever capacity we have available to us.

And that’s where things can come to a grinding halt for us, isn’t it?

The fact that that choice is ours, and it’s often the scariest thing we ever tried to do…

Can we be honest here? 

Leaning into our callings, choosing to use the gifts and talents God gave us to make a difference in the areas of burden and passions that we have… that stuff can be scary! 

Just like that third person in the parable, we can want to duck and hide all the things God entrusted to us because we are afraid…

Can I draw your attention to that fourth point above, though?

The “Well Done” comes from the Master not because of the servant’s good and perfect doing…

The “Well Done” comes from the Master not because of the servant’s good and successful doing…

…

No, the “Well Done” comes from the Master because of the servant’s good and faithful doing.

The servant proved trustworthy with what the master had left with them.

—-

If I can be so bold-

God isn’t asking you to figure out the answers to all the problems of the world, or to have a 10-year plan to eradicate pain and suffering from the planet.

He’s asking you to use the gifts He has given you.

That’s it.

I think this whole idea of “calling” can really mess with us, especially in a culture where we are supposed to have all the answers. 

I don’t think it’s as complicated as we like to make it, though.

I think one of the biggest things we need to embrace is the truth that our individual calling can look different in different seasons of our life.

What we are capable of and what we should be entrusted with as teenagers should look very different in a some ways than what we should be entrusted with as a 40 year old.

What my capacity is for public serving or ministry may look very different depending on the age of my kids and if I am a stay-at-home parent. 

(For real- the diaper days are when we’re living for nap time and a quiet cup of coffee, so please – dear Lord, for everyone’s safety – don’t interrupt nap time of the little ones!😩 )

Just like the pumpkin spice latte has a season, we have different seasons in life.

The question on the table is this:

What are we doing with what we’ve got, in the season in which we are in?

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Don’t size up people on Instagram to play the comparison game.

Don’t start hyperventilating because you don’t have the five year plan (that never seems to work out anyway).

Just ask yourself, honestly, if you’re being faithful with what has been entrusted to you for this season.

That’s it.

The next season will come and you can re-evaluate and see what edits you might want to make. 

But for now, let’s just focus on being faithful with what we’ve been entrusted with today.

We can let tomorrow worry about itself…