Two Talent Living in a Ten Talent World

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Once upon a time a young woman started a new thing called a blog. She was fascinated by the opportunity to just write and not spend time pitching article ideas to print magazines. She was thrilled she could reach more people with the ideas she had taught and spoken about in various places. As she discussed with her husband what to name her little spot on blogspot, there was one obvious choice – Two Talent Living. This unedited piece was written in February 2005. Although she has wandered through several versions of this blog and used different blog names at times, she was convinced of the truth of it then and she’s even more convinced of it now.

Two Talent Living is the result of personal experience. God has taken me on a life-changing journey over the past nine years. More times than I can count people have encouraged me to share what I have learned. Out of this encouragement came speaking, teaching and writing opportunities. And now this blog.

Why the Name Two Talent Living?

One day my husband and I were pondering our callings as individuals and a couple. David had been meditating for several weeks on the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). We were frustrated with how our lives felt out of sync. David said, “Maybe the problem is that we’re two talent people and we’re trying to live five talent lives.” I immediately responded, “And we’re trying to do it in a ten talent culture.”

It was a significant light bulb moment. We realized that God was calling us to be faithful stewards with what HE had called us to do – and ONLY what He had called us to do. He has given us certain giftings and responsibilities. We need to be faithful with those in such a way that we receive a good return. It is interesting to note that both the servant who received five talents and the servant who received two talents had 100% returns on their investments. Both received the same praise from the master. The servant who had two was not seen as less valuable than the one with five. His faithfulness was recognized and rewarded.

Sadly, there are a lot of people running around trying to be faithful with five talents when God is really only interested in them being faithful with two. So rather than giving 100% to the two talents God has entrusted to them, they are giving far less than 100% (as well as the other three things God really doesn’t want them to be doing in the first place).

We live in a culture that doesn’t think five talents are nearly enough and two are a laughable joke. We are pressured to maximize everything. Stretch ourselves to the limit. Give 150%. Well, no one can give 150% and I don’t believe this is a biblical attitude. A lot of the troubles in our churches and families can be directly attributed to allowing our culture to shape our priorities rather than God’s Word and His purposes. How many people (Christians included) are driven by self-imposed false guilt brought on by listening to the people around us who constantly tell us that we aren’t doing enough? The TTL life is not about being a mediocre person, but the complete person God created you to be. Two Talent Living is about encouraging people to live out their God-given calling, not the unrealistic and often ridiculous expectations of those around us.

So What is Your Blog Going to be About?

In our fast-paced society it is easy to live in reaction mode and never really ponder why we do what we do. It takes a lot of effort and strength of character to go against the flow. It takes courage and perseverance to make choices that are not the prevailing view. People need encouragement to live confidently in the calling God has on their life. Our culture (and even the church) promotes busyness, drivenness, and trying to do things that God has not specifically called us as individuals to do. My hope is to be a supportive friend to others on the journey. Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest:

“The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.”

As I have spoken to groups and taught classes on these ideas, I have had numerous people tell me how encouraging it was to have someone tell them these things – ideas they had been thinking about but didn’t know how to fully express or explain to other people. I hope this blog will do the same for you.