The world sells Pet Rocks with confidence. Maybe faith is meant to be just as bold. This week, we’re closing The Shrewdness Gap.

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Have you ever rolled your eyes when you hear about someone making a fortune off something simple — like Pet Rocks or those jelly bracelets that barely held their shape? Yeah, me too.

In this episode, I’m diving into Luke 16 and the story of the shrewd manager — a guy Jesus called wise not because he was perfect, but because he was bold, creative, and quick on his feet. I started wondering: what if faith was meant to look more like that? What if we were supposed to use our time, quirks, and gifts with that same kind of confidence?

I call it The Shrewdness Gap — the space between the loud, confident voices selling half-baked ideas and the quiet, gifted people (like us) who hide what’s real and call it humility.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why Jesus’ parable of the “dishonest manager” is really about resourcefulness, not money.
• The hidden power of your everyday gifts — even the ones you’ve buried.
• A simple, brave action to use your gift this week (yes, it might feel uncomfortable).

This week, I’m challenging myself — and you — to pick one gift you’ve been hiding and put it to use. Bake something. Sing something. Share something. Just take one small, brave step and see what happens.

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So tell me something.

How do you feel when I tell you that the guy who invented the pet

rock made over a million dollars.

Or when you see someone making a crazy amount of money on something ridiculously

simple like jelly bracelets and, and I'm not talking about the 1980s jelly

bracelets, i'm talking about the ones reinvented into animal shapes

that like the kids went crazy for.

I mean, millions made on stretchy plastic in shapes that didn't even

hold when you wore 'em as a bracelet.

And if you're anything like me, you probably think really a rock, a bracelet.

I could have done that too.

We didn't, and that's the crux of today's story.

Hi, I'm Sarah Scott and welcome to Unforeseen Journey, where each

week we take a piece of scripture, challenge what we thought we knew

about it, and discover one way we can live it out in our everyday lives.

So this week I'm in Luke 16 and Jesus is telling this wild

parable about a shrewd manager.

The guy's about to get fired.

We don't know why he's accused of dishonesty, but the details are

a bit fuzzy facing unemployment.

He panics, what am I gonna do?

I've got no plan, no safety net, no friends.

So he makes a move.

He cuts a deal with all of his boss' debtors.

Right.

What do you owe?

I'll cut it in half.

He is thinking to himself, well, if I can make some friends now,

maybe they'll help me later.

And here's the twist.

At the end of the story, the boss actually commends him, not for

being shady, but for being shrewd, quick, resourceful, creative.

Then Jesus drops this line.

If the people of the world are that shrewd, why aren't the

people of faith just as bold?

That one stung.

And honestly, you know, most sermons will stop right here and

make it all about the money, right?

He was going after the money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But I wanted to look at this a little bit differently.

I was thinking to myself, there's got to be a better message here than just

be, you know, frugal with your money.

Right?

And there's only a part of it.

And so when I started to look into this a little bit more, and look if

there's something different, really when I think when he's thinking of

how people being shrewd, it isn't about being shrewd with our money, but

it's being shrewd with our resources.

The manager didn't have money.

But he did have his mind and he did have some cunning, and he was a little crafty

with how he was approaching people.

Right?

He had courage.

I guess if we're gonna say pluckiness.

So money is one resource that we can be looking at, but so are our time, our

skills, our connections, our quirks, our passions, and your literal voice.

These are all temporary tools that we've been given to use

to navigate the world today.

You can't take 'em with you, and even if you can, I imagine they'll

be used much differently in heaven.

Now what we're asking is if the rest of the world uses these tools

to build empires out of rocks and bracelets, what would happen if we

used ours with that same confidence?

So let me let, let's take this a little bit further.

Let's look at this from an example.

I was gifted with a singing voice.

One that I have been squandering for years.

It's been trained, it's been used.

I love it.

It's one of my favorite things to do.

And then over time I've buried it.

Uh, I got tangled up in relationships, lost disappointment.

Same with my speaking voice.

I let it shrink.

I used to preach all the time, and I don't think I have spoken about much.

At all until I started this podcast.

It is a gift that I was given and I've tucked it away, and maybe you've got

a gift too that you are hiding out.

Maybe it's your art.

Maybe you're a gifted organizer, a storyteller, a gardener, a cook.

We all have something that comes easily to us so easily that we discount it, and yet

the world is out there selling pet rocks.

Why are we hiding what we've.

Actually got as real gifts that gap, this shrewdness gap is everywhere.

The loudest voices are pushing half-baked ideas full of confidence.

Meanwhile, people with real gifts are hiding it and calling it humility.

It's not humility, it's fear, and it leaves holes in the world that

should have been filled with light.

So here's my invitation.

I want you to sit down and list out your resources, even the

weirdest things you can think of.

Circle ones that you've been hiding, and if you don't like that word, say,

which ones have you not used in a while?

Then I want you to choose one.

Slightly bold, very uncomfortable way of putting it to use this week.

Now, this doesn't have to be huge.

If you used to love to bake and you haven't baked in forever, bake a pile of

S, drop 'em off to a neighbor, post a poem instead of keeping it in your notebook.

One of my very favorite ways to do this, by the way.

If you really wanna hold yourself accountable, put it out on social media.

Oh, but Sarah, no, no, no.

Put it in your stories.

If you're really feeling like that's way too bold, put it in your stories.

Stories are there for 24 hours and then they are gone.

Right.

They're only seen by our closest network of people and not by the world at large.

So you aren't actually really throwing it out there.

You're just throwing it out there to your people, which I also

know can be very scary, but.

Do it.

Just do it.

It'll disappear in 24 hours and you won't have to think about it again.

All right?

Sing one song, go to church, sing with a bunch of other people.

Sing it, karaoke, whatever it takes.

Use the gifts that God has given you.

If all of that feels like it's just too much, then I'll

invite you to send it to me.

Okay?

Send it to my email.

Send me ka, find me on social media.

Send it to me in a dm, if that's gonna make it brave enough for you, if that's

the small step you need to take to make it feel a little bit better for

yourself, I would love to see and hear what you're doing out in the world,

because every time we do one little thing.

Then that leads to a bigger step and a bigger step and a bigger step, and

we start getting more bold and more creative with how we can use our gifts.

And that is what we were looking at in the Shrewd Manager, and

that is how we are going to bring more of our gifts into this world.

Thanks for listening, and remember, your faith was never meant to be contained.

I'll talk to you next week.

Bye.