March 7

The Shrewd Manager

            Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.  So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’  Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.  I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’  He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’  Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’  And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.  And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

Luke 16:1-9

            Is the Dishonest Manager the model for how we are to live our lives?  No.  As someone who’s primary job duties revolve around organizational administration, this is not God’s call to lie, cheat and swindle.  This is a story about being shrewd…being wise…being strategic.  The manager uses the meager resources and power that he currently has in order to secure relationships that will provide long-term blessings.

          Similarly, we have meager resources and power here in this lifetime.  Money, homes, cars, time, abilities, access and education are a few of the resources that come to mind.  Jesus’ invitation for us is to use those things here on earth for the purpose of building relationships that will have eternal blessings: those very same relationships in the Family of God in Heaven.  We don’t get to take our stuff or our bank accounts or our trophies with us to Eternity.  All that lasts are the relationships that we have cultivated over our years.  I would tell my students to use their stuff to win friends so that they can be welcomed into eternity with open arms.

          As parents of special needs kids, the call for us is the same, even if the specific applications are slightly different.  Our resources feel stretched pretty thin.  Extra money is usually put towards therapies or enrichment opportunities.  Our schedules are oriented to the benefit of our kids, without a whole lot of wiggle room.  People are usually not interested in hand-me-down wheelchairs or back braces or our leftover garbanzo bean flour.

          What we have to share, that no one else possesses, is experience.  How do you prepare for an IEP?  How do you function when sleep is limited?  What kind of travel secrets have you learned?  We can listen and we can share and we can walk through the experience of living with disabilities in ways that cover and support people who are just entering this world.  We can build friendships by listening and sharing resources…maybe even by learning enough about the family to be able to offer babysitting once in a while.  Imagine if you had known someone who could watch your child for an hour so that you could do dishes or laundry or read a book or take a nap.

          We are invited to be wise with our time and strategic with our resources as a way of inviting people to join us in the Kingdom of God.  

A moment to reflect:

Can you think of someone that you could love into the Kingdom of God through the investment of your time and resources?