Risk making a mistake

The parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30), when each person is giving a sum of money, and the lord of the house goes off on a journey. When the lord returns, he asks each of the persons with money to return it. The first two have invested, and so return it with interest. The third has buried it to keep it safe, and returns only that.

I've often wondered what hidden meaning I should get from this parable. I've heard many sermons that focus on the investing part, and that God expects us to make good use of our gifts, and will only give us more if we have prospered. A God who is watching and counting. But I was delighted when I heard a sermon that explained the parable in a way that spoke to my heart.

"God is less concerned about our mistakes than we are," the priest said. He explained the parable as a story about a willingness to take risks. Anyone who invests knows exactly what he is talking about.

The first two people spoken of in Matthew's parable were willing to risk. The story isn't that their investment produced more, but that they took a chance. They dared to try. The third person in the story would not. He was afraid of making a mistake.

As I think about it, I find that I have, in my past, feared too much to make mistakes. I saw God as one who keeps score, who wants us to choose wisely and rightly, one easily disappointed. Yes, my God was one who watched and counted.

But that is not the real God; that is only my own inner fear of God. As I've taken chances, made mistakes, gone forward, I've come to a better understanding. Mistakes do not keep me from going forward in my spiritual life; fear to make them does.

I often find myself thinking of the words of Paul in Cor. 2:2, that it has not even entered into our hearts what God has prepared for those who love him. I think of the qualities that make a good friend. A friend is not one who watches and counts my mistakes. A good friend believes in me more than I believe in myself. A person I want to be with. I remind myself, God is that and more.

That is my image of God. And that is the why mistakes mean little to the one who is Divine. Effort, intention, and attempts, these are the things that matter.