Stop Waiting for PermissionSample

Imagined Impossibilities

When I read Matthew 25:14-30, I want to see myself in the most faithful, heroic character. But the truth is, I’ve got some one-talent manager in me. Who gets excited about the prospect of potential failure? I don’t. I see the appeal if it’s possible to avoid falling flat on my face.

But avoiding failure is not a strategy for greatness.

From the one-talent manager’s point of view, he is smart when he buries his master’s money. He knows the boss’s reputation for extra-high standards and extra-large expectations, and his fear of failure paralyzes him into inaction. He’s already decided that success is impossible.

Here’s the problem: Unrealistic expectations are more often a figment of our imaginations than an accurate assessment of reality. By obsessing over our limitations and a shortage of resources, we distort our understanding of what God wants for us.

Who insists that a degree you earn in five years while working to support your family is worth less than a degree earned in four?

Who maintains that memorizing scripture is pointless unless you learn entire books at a time or that only prayer clocked by the hour counts as holy?

Who demands that the one-talent manager double the boss’s money or be considered a failure because anything less than a 100-percent return is unacceptable?

Nobody.

In fact, the wealthy man informs the one-talent wealth manager that he would have been satisfied with the annual interest the talent could earn in a basic savings account (see Matthew 25:27).

In the end, the one-talent manager’s catastrophe starts with his limited imagination. He preplans for failure.

Don’t let this be you.

Don’t allow imaginary what-ifs to become real-life excuses.

Maybe it’s hard to imagine being completely debt-free and having money above and beyond what you need, enough that you can pay off someone else’s student loans. Fair enough, but you can make one wiser financial choice today.

Maybe it’s hard to imagine your marriage becoming a union that deepens in love and trust each year. Okay, but you can make it a little more loving and a little more trusting right now.

Don’t excuse yourself with imagined impossibilities.

In what areas of your life have you already decided that success is impossible? How can you overcome that way of thinking?