Devo 30
11/27/00
I hope all of you had a good, no great, Thanksgiving weekend. I got to do something these last few days that I haven't had a chance to do in a long time...NOTHING!! Ok, I was doing things...reading, eating, playing video games, beating up on my brothers...on the PlayStation of course...yeah... Anyway, for most of you in college, you have now hit the final stretch heading for the end of the semester; one week regular class, dead week, finals week...and then you get a month off (lucky dogs!). When I was on the Cross Country team in high school, there were two things I'd always do as I finished a race; run as fast as I can, and repeat to myself this verse: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." I encourage you to keep that in mind as you come up on the end of this semester (and for at least a couple, the end of college all together!) Anyway, on with the show.
"Baseball Cards, Lottery Tickets, and Old Rifles"
I had originally thought about writing something else (and even got about a page of it done) when I decided to change. The reason is that my topic now is something that occurred to me yesterday morning and since then I've found a couple more ways of looking at it. Three times, in three different ways has this idea come to me, and so I thought I'd explore the idea a little bit.
Like every other American boy, I liked to collect baseball cards. It was fun opening up a new pack of cards and eagerly scan each of them for a popular name or cool design. Of course, once I got old enough to realize that baseball cards have some value depending on how popular the player was or how rare the card was, I started opening my packs with a price guide near by. The longer I collected, the more I picked up on names to watch for; Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn, etc. because these guys were good and so their cards were worth more than others. Though I don't collect anymore (three bucks for a pack of 10-15 cards gets pretty expensive when you buy five or six packs a week!), I still have an album with what were my best cards at the time I stopped (about the time I got to college--coincidence?). And right now the crown of my collection is none other than a Sammy Sosa rookie card worth about eighty dollars. I also have a fairly rare Michael Jordan baseball card that's probably worth around twenty dollars right now. Aside from these two, I also have several other cards worth two to three dollars as well as hundreds that aren't worth a nickel. It's cool for me to think that I could probably get a couple hundred dollars out of my entire collection--but right now, technically, all I have are a bunch of pieces of cardboard.
I was talking to my cousin once about the thrill of baseball card collecting. He agreed and said it's a lot like playing the lottery. It really is. When you buy an unopened pack of cards, there could be anything in it--maybe a rookie card that will be worth hundreds someday, maybe a super rare card that's worth hundreds of dollars--you don't know until you actually open it. But first you have to put down the three bucks for the pack. Just like playing the lottery, I was paying a small amount for the potential of getting a much larger amount. Sometimes the value of the cards in the pack would more than pay off the price of the pack, sometimes it was a bust. I doubt many of you will remember, but back when I was a kid, there was a TV show called 'Lottery' that I liked to watch. The main gist of this show (as well as I can remember) was that the two main characters would travel around informing people that they have won the lottery, and to validate their tickets. Sometimes, as it happens, a person will have lost his ticket after claiming the prize and before being validated, and to his disappointment, was unable to receive the money. And is always the case, there were always a lot of prizes unclaimed--winning tickets bought, but never claimed. If the owner only realized that the little slip of paper lying on the desk or in the wallet was worth thousands of dollars! As it is, this little piece of paper, while being worth a lot of money, is still technically, just a piece of paper.
Last night, I was flipping through the channels on TV (all five of them) and came upon 'Antiques Roadshow'. I'd seen this show before and it is really pretty neat. On this show, people can bring their antiques and have them professionally appraised. The results are often remarkable. One man on the show I watched brought up an 1866 Winchester rifle that he had bought forty years ago for one thousand dollars. The appraiser went on about the history of the rifle and all its unique features and then declared, that at an auction, the rifle could most likely be sold for a value of twenty to thirty thousand dollars! There were other really similar surprises with old paintings and a German doll when the owners suddenly found themselves in possession of a very valuable piece of property. But right now, technically, these items are really nothing more than pieces of porcelain, or old rifles.
What do these three illustrations have in common? All of them demonstrate something with potential value. The Sammy Sosa rookie card can potentially get me eighty bucks. The unclaimed lottery ticket can potentially bring in thousands of dollars. The old rifle potentially can be sold for a large amount of money. But this is all potential value. The owner is not rich just for having the card or ticket. Something needs to happen to bring out the value of these items; the card must be sold, the ticket must be claimed, the rifle must be put up for auction. Only then can the potential value be translated into actual value.
Now, one final illustration. There was a man who was going away for a time and so entrusted portions of his estate to his servants. To one he gave five portions. To another, he gave two portions. And to a third, he gave only one portion. Now the first two, took their portions, and put them to work, and after a time had doubled the amount they had to begin with. The third, however, kept his portion close and hid it away afraid lest anything happen to it. By and by, the master returned and was very pleased to see the returns on the first two servants' portions. However, when he saw the third servant and his lack of any return at all, he became angry and gave the one portion to the first servant.
Hopefully you recognize this story; it's taken from the book of Matthew (ch. 25). Notice the third servant, and what he does with the portion (talent) his master gives him. He does nothing with it. He just hides it. Looking at the example of the other two servants, it is clear that these portions have some potential value. The first servant was able to use his five to make five more. But the third servant didn't recognize the potential value of his portion and set it aside. It became just the same as the baseball card, lottery ticket, and old rifle--full of potential value, but worthless through unuse.
God has also given all of us special talents and gifts. And He has given us these gifts for a reason. Remember what our chief purpose in life is? To glorify God in all we do. These gifts, then, are to be used to this end; to glorify God. And these gifts are very valuable indeed. Because of Billy Graham's gift for evangelism, thousands have come to know Christ. Because of the thinking ability of C.S. Lewis and other great defenders of the faith, many have had their belief in Christ strengthened beyond measure. Because of the gift of generosity in some people, powerful ministries have been able to continue reaching people for Christ. But none of this would have been able to happen if these people would have taken their gifts and abilities and set them aside. They would actually be doing a disservice to God, no matter how strong their belief is, by not exercising the talents God gave them. God created us to glorify Him, and God has given us the tools and abilities by which to do this. Potentially, each of us as believers, have inestimable value to the service of God. But until we exercise this potential and put it to use, we are as worthless as the baseball card, lottery ticket, and the old rifle.