Shrewder than... No one

Wow! I feel like I just learned something new, or gained a new insight. I was reading the parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16 today (I've been slowly reading through look and savoring every bite- it's a great book to take in!), a bunch of things jumped out at me, I'll share a few.

You probably know the story- a rich man hears that his estate manager has been squandering his possessions. So the manager is like "uh-oh, I'm going to get fired really soon, I need some job security." He quickly calls the people who are in debt to his master, he lessens their debts.

"For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

What is Jesus saying? That we aren't shrewd in how we deal? Actually...yes. Even worldly people know how to promote their own interests (even if the way they do it is sometimes shady), but we Christians don't know how to promote our Heavenly Father's interests with our earthly talents, or possessions, or money. We need to figure out how to use even the lowly, temporary stuff of this world to promote the high, eternal purposes of God. Ouch -that bites, are we really that dumb?

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?"

This is true with more than being trustworthy with money. If someone cannot remain faithful to their boyfriend or girlfriend when dating would you trust them to be a faithful spouse? If someone did not read their Bible daily in 2009 would you trust them to read it daily in 2010, or the rest of their life? See, if we can't be trustworthy in small-ish things we will have an even harder time being trustworthy with the same thing in a bigger context. If we cannot properly handle deceitful riches of this world will we properly handle true riches?

Midway through my blog I began looking for commentary on the passage, and this blog came up, it was thought provoking to me.

Only 15 verses, but a lifetime of concepts to mull over...