"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?