Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 513 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
The Parable of the Three Servants – Activity
Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 513 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy. Currently, we are in a multi-week trek as we explore the teachings from some of my virtual mentors, such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Earl Nightingale. The core of our current trek is based primarily on Jim Rohn’s book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. I have learned a considerable amount from reading and re-reading this book on my own trek of life, and I trust that it will benefit you also. Keeping with the continuity of Wisdom-Trek, I will be adapting it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.
We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. It has been cool, but not overly cold for the first week of January in Marietta. Paula and I have an open house at our home this Saturday for friends to see the renovations that we have completed over the past couple of years. We are expecting about 50 people to drop by. We are still decorated for Christmas, so we thought it would be a great time to host it.
The following weekend we will be celebrating Christmas with our five children, their spouses, and our six grandkids. We delayed it so everyone would be able to come at the same time. Plus it allows us to take advantage of after-Christmas specials. We have done this a couple of times in the past few years, and it seems to work out well for all. Sometimes it is best to work our activities around what is best for everyone instead of trying to fit everything into a schedule that is already busy.
As we consider the activities that we are engaged in, our trek today will be in sync with that as we start on our third trail of this extended trek which is the Trail of Activity.
If you have missed the past few Philosophy Friday treks, it would be good to go back and review them to get caught up on our progress so far. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s break camp and continue on the third trail of this extended trek as we cover…
The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Activity Part 1
As a reminder, our overall extended trek will cover these five trails:
Philosophy
Attitude
Activity
Results
Lifestyle
1. The Parable of the Three Servants
In the book of Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story known as the Parable of the Three Servants. A parable is a word story that illustrates a greater truth. According to the story, one day the master of the household gathered his three servants together and announced that he would soon be going away on a long journey. Before leaving, he gave each of his servants a certain number of bags of silver. Each bag of silver would be worth several years’ wages to the average laborer, so this represented a substantial sum of money. Let me read this story to you, so you will understand the lessons contained in it.
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.”
“The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.”
“After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.'”
“The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!'”
“The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.'”
“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!'”
“Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.'”
“But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.'”
“Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”
Many people are not very happy with the way this story ends. After all, it does not seem fair to take the little that the third servant had and give it to the servant who now had ten. Remember, life is not designed to give rewards in proportion to your level of need, it gives them in proportion to your level of ability. While there is a deeper Biblical lesson about the building the Kingdom of Heaven in this story, for our analogy let’s look at it as part of the trails on life’s trek.
The moral of this story for your lesson today is that whatever life has handed you, whether it is one bag of pennies or five bags of silver, it is your responsibility to do something with what you have been given! That is how you change pennies into fortunes and obstacles into opportunity. You must take all that you have and all that you are and put it to work.
Sooner or later you must convert knowledge and good feelings into activity. This parable also clearly demonstrates, the more you start with, the more you will receive for all of your disciplined work. That is why starting with a sound personal philosophy and the right attitude is so important. The more you know and the better you feel about yourself and your opportunities, the greater your chances of success will be.
A growing awareness and a positive attitude are not enough in and of themselves. What you know and how you feel merely determines your potential for achievement. Whether you actually achieve your goals is ultimately determined by your activity.
You can have a well-balanced philosophy, great depth of character, and a good attitude about life, but unless you put these valuable assets to work, you may find yourself making more excuses than progress. What you know and how you feel are important factors that affect the quality of your life, but remember, they are merely the foundation upon which to build a better future. Completing the rest of the picture requires action.
We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we begin our hike on the Trail of Activity. Today we learned that any success requires activity and action. It was the two servants that took action based on their ability that were rewarded for their activity.
Next Philosophy Friday we will continue on the Trail of Activity and explore why we sometimes get stuck at the base of the mountain and why we must harness our vision for the future. Join us next Friday for additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.
On our next trek on Monday we will begin a new series call The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack where we will equip you with the tools needed to impact the lives of others. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
That will finish our trek for today. If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.
As we take this trek of life together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!