The Choice and Risk of Doing Nothing

Photo by x1klima









The choices we make can haunt us.

The choice and risk of doing nothing is easy to dismiss. It comes up in the parable of the talents, a touchstone scripture passage for my life. Luke 19: 11-28 gives us a variation on the talents using ten coins as the exchange between the master and his servants.

The idea that someday, sometime in my future, I will have such a moment of accountability, raised a red warning flag in my mind many years ago. How would I feel when God asks me what I did with all He gave me? I could feel my fash flush at the imagined scene in my mind. Aware of being given many gifts and talents, I have carried for decades a strong desire to make good use of all I have been given, without making myself crazy.

I have gone over the edge often, being one of those roll-your-eyes overachievers. I wrote in my memoir how my husband felt compelled to send me away for a weekend of rest because I had pushed myself too hard to use all my talents. My body rebelled. Jesus’ parable is not telling us to go overboard like that. It is telling us to do something with the mission we’ve been given, with the gifts we naturally hold within us.

The wrong choice is so easy.



Photo by x1klima

The one thing I won’t be accused of is wrapping my gifts in a handkerchief and handing them back untouched.

We all make many choices in our life’s journey—some good, some not-so-good—and this parable that Jesus shares assures us that God rewards even our smallest efforts. The only thing that seems to be offensive to God is when we choose to do nothing.

The choice and risk of doing nothing is a slippery slope. Doing nothing is so easy. Doing nothing is sometimes the correct action when faced with taunts, mean acts, name-calling. It’s not an action, however, that will ever please God when He’s given us a task to do for Him. Sister Meg Funk is right.

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