"It's not about the money, money, money."

I've never really written something to someone specifically. And this isn't even for one specific person- moreso to a specific group of people. So this is simply random pieces of advice and thoughts that I wanted to relay to you, Trevecca Nazarene University's class of 2015.

I'd like to start off by saying that if you ever need to talk to someone, Becky McMahon is probably the most awesome person to do that with. She, as well as her sister Kayla, are two of the most amazing people that I look up to for their strength in themselves and in their values. And I think all three of us owe Tom Middendorf more than we could ever put into words for the guidance that he has given us and the time he has spent empowering us within ourselves.

It's been a crazy journey. I am entering my third and final year as a college student. I could go with the cliche and say "It seems like only yesterday.." bit, but I'd rather just tell you that college is a place that should not be underestimated.

I'm not going to go into detail about my college experience. I can sit here and go on for days about everything that happened. Right now, I want to give you a small amount of advice that I wish someone had given me when I was starting this new chapter in my life. We can grab coffee and I can tell you stories sometime. And really- I drink so much coffee, I am surprised I don't pee it.

But there's this story that Christ tells and I've read it time and time again, but never really read into it as much as I have lately.

So you've got this guy. He's rich. I mean, I don't think he's 'Donald Trump' rich... but he's pretty stinkin rich.

And this guy who has all sorts of money pulls all of his slaves (today, they are called executives) together and tells them that he is going on this long journey in which he will give his estate, his property, over to his slaves for them to grow while he is gone.

This man distributes 8 talents. Now, I don't know how much that means to you, but that's a ton of money.

A talent is a greek coin thats worth around 6,000 drachmas...and a drachma is about 1 days wage. So.. 6,000 days wages times 8 is about...

48,000 days of work. Thats over 131 years of work.

So you have this man who has worked an extremely long time and extremely hard to build up this estate and he is now leaving it in the hands of his executives to invest and grow his estate.

Did I mention it was over 131 years worth of work?

So he splits up his estate into 8 different parts- 5 parts going to one executive, 2 parts going to another, and 1 part going to a final servant/executive; each according to his own ability. And he goes off on this journey.

Let's say he went to Italy. There really is a lot to do in Italy, and it is an absolutely gorgeous place. I would totally understand if someone came to me and gave me their estate to go escape there.

So this man goes on this long tour through Italy.. we can call it the "Tour de Italia". It sounds cool.

And he comes back after many years of sightseeing and hiking and learning and he calls all of his executives together to see what has come of his estate since he left. The first executive (the one with the 5 talents) walks up to him and gives him back his five talents and says, 'Master, you have given me five talents- but look! I have taken your five and invested them and earned five more talents!'

This guy who has been gone for so long looks at his executive and says, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant! You were faithful over few things; I will put you in charge of many!'

So then the executive with 2 talents comes up to him and gives him back his 2 talents and says, 'Master, you gave me two talents- but see here! I have taken your two and grown them into four, doubling what you gave me!'

So this guy who has been gone for so long looks at his executive and says, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant! You were faithful over few things; I will put you in charge of many!'

Then the executive that was given 1 talent walks up and with as much energy as the other two, he says, 'Master, you gave me one talent! You are a difficult man, one who takes what is not his- so I hid the talent in the ground and here: you have what is yours!'

Pause. I don't even know how I would have responded to the third servant.. but, here's how the master did:

The master looks at the third executive and says to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew that I took what was not mine, why didn't you take this to the bank? At least when I returned I would have gotten what was mine plus interest! Take your talent and give it to the servant with 10 talents! For everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have enough; but everyone who doesn't have, even what he has will be taken from him! Throw this good-for-nothing slave into the darkenss; the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

WHEW!!

The master sort of flipped out on that third executive. But it makes sense. If my master came to me and told me that he is giving me X amount of money and that I need to grow that... well, I would work on growing it. I wouldn't stash it away to hide it.

Or would I?

So many people take this on as a financial lesson. But it far surpasses that of a simple financial lesson. I find it quite ironic that the name of a currency is a 'talent', when today, the word 'talent' to us means a special or unique characteristic.

So what if we read the story in the light of Jesus being the master, and us being the servants. Isn't that kind of a cool angle on the story?

But wait a minute. Why does she get 5 special talents, but I only get 2?! That's not fair.

People are born into different blessings. Not everyone is born into the same surrounding. But you notice how the master rewarded the first two servants equally- although they were in charge of inequal amounts, they were rewarded the same.

You, my friend, have a special gift.

I cannot tell you what that is. But I can tell you that you have one. That, I am sure of.

You were born in just the right place and in just the right time so that God could use you to the best of your ability.

Now the question is- are you going to grow your talents, or are you going to hide them?

Burn this, Rob Bell.

If you think this is about Rob Bell's new book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, then you will be disappointed. I haven't read the book nor do I plan to (although may break down eventually and read it).

I came across an interesting story the other day and have had a few thoughts about it, but I wanted to take some time to really delve into it and fully understand the story and how I could relate it to today. It's a familiar parable that most everyone has heard. It's about chocolate bunnies and disobedient fruit.

So there's this King. King Nebakanoozie or Barakahatrumpy or something.

Or  King Nebuchadnezzar. That works too. (I had to research how to spell that.)

Anyways, this guy made this.. thing. The NIV says an image of gold. I'm guessing they mean a statue, because they say it's about 90 feet tall and about 9 feet wide. It doesn't really say what it looks like. It just says that it's about 90 feet tall and about 9 feet wide. It's big- you get the point.

So after- well, the Bible says HE made this statue, but I have a feeling it wasn't him. :) You know, like Pharaoh made the Pyramids. No he didn't. The Hebrews did.

But that's beside the point.

So Nebazeunheidt- I mean, Nebuchadnezzar, gathered all of the officials and nobles to the ends of his reign. He proceeds to tell them that they have to bow down and worship this great piece of metal (that just sits there, might I add). They have to bend their bodies- they have to 'fall down' whenever the music sounds- again, to worship this amazing piece of metal.

What do you think the king saw in this? All of his people- all of the people that he reigns over, are now not focused on him, but focused on something that only King Nebuchadnezzar has invested time and power into. How did he get everyone to listen to him?

He was a great leader! I mean, he got an entire nation to bow down and worship a silly little (or big) piece of solid metal! Precious metal, mind you!

Just kidding.

He gave his people an ultimatum. He told them that if they didn't bow down and worship, he would throw them into a 'blazing furnace'.

I don't know about you guys, but I hate the idea of burning to death. Unless they added a little salt and pepper..

A furnace (no doubt taken from the latin word fornax- meaning oven) from the 1st or 2nd century would look a little different than today's conventional 'oven'. Back then, it was called a blast furnace- chemicals and fuel are continuously supplied from the top while air is blown from the bottom- creating a whirlwind of chemical reactions (fires) that are taking place throughout the entire furnace.

To put it simply, if King Nebuchadnezzar was to drop you into the furnace, you would be dead before you hit the ground- that is, if there was anything left of you by then. My apologies for the gruesome details.

Anyways, to move the story along- the music played and the people bowed down. And the king was happy.

Until some nosey, tattletale Chaldeans (part of the Assyrian peoples- known for their high level of cruelty and torture) ran to the king and let him know that there were three jews who, when the music began to play, did not bow down.

So Neb summonned them. He was pretty straightforward with them- 'Either you bow down to my gods and my statue when my music plays, I will throw you into my blazing furnace. Then what god will save you then?'

King Neb gave them a second chance! They could have gone free and all could have been avoided.

But no.

They replied to him- 'We do not need to defend ourselves from this matter. Regardless of if our God saves us or not- we will not bow down to your god, we will not bow down to your statue, and we will not bow down to you.'

Now, you can understand how angry this made the king. In fact, it made him so angry that he ordered the furnace (which was already fatally hot enough) to be heated to seven times hotter than the usual.

So the guards roped up the three jews and took them to the top of the furnace so that they could fall into the heated abyss that Neb had created for them. In fact, the king had ordered it so hot that when the guards pushed the three men into the fire, the heat killed the guards.

So here is Nebuchadnezzar with a couple of cooked guards and a kingdom of people who will obey him.

And the four people in the furnace- we can't forget about them.

I mean really- did you think this story was going nowhere?
Nebuchadnezzar looks into the fire and sees four figures walking around.

Didn't he throw three in?
Why in the world are they walking around?
Who is this fourth person?

What? Wait, wait, wait. This isn't how it was supposed to go.

Guys drop in the furnace, furnace goes poof, guys go bye-bye. The end.

Or not. God had a different idea.

So now you've got these four guys walking around inside the furnace- so King Neb calls them out of the furnace. So the three men walk out of the furnace- unharmed.

Who was in the furnace?!
Well duh, silly. It was an angel. Haven't you heard these types of stories before?

King Nebuchadnezzar and the officers and nobles of the kingdom surrounded the three in awe of what had just happened. The king decrees that no harm be done to the three, on pain of death.

Right- so the king was gonna kill these guys, but when he finds out that their God is not one to pick a fight with, he protects them.

Sounds like a real wimp to me. Pushover.

But really- what was Jesus' point in telling this parable?

We have those above us in authority that have the power to create, to manipulate, to coerce, to reward, to do just about anything to make us do what they want us to do.

We have possessions that- whether intangible or tangible- defer our attention away from God.

Technology, communication, people, ideas, self. Those are a few of the idols I see worshipped today.

When I was a little boy, my family would all gather together and we would pray together.

But we wouldn't just stand there and hold hands or sit around the table and pray.

We would all physically bend down and fold our hands together and close our eyes and we would take turns, listening to each others prayers.

I'm not saying that there is something about doing that that makes it official- but I am saying that it makes it authentic.

We, as a family, kneeled- bowed- fell to God and worshipped him. Now, as we got older, we stopped doing that.

Or should I say, we stopped doing that together.
Often times, after crawling in bed and getting all warm and cozy, will crawl back out of bed and kneel by my bed and fold my hands and close my eyes and have one on one time with my God.

Sometimes I will wake up at 1am (even though it's 3am now) and crawl out of bed and say a quick prayer.

I just can't help myself but ask:
     Where has the authenticity gone?

     Where has our focus gone?

     Where has our determination gone?

The questions are endless.

The answers?

Well, that's up to you.