Burnout and Two Talents

A few months ago I read ‘Spiritual Depression’ by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones. In one chapter he covers the Parable of the Laborers. He says about God:

“He does not count service as other people do. He is interested in the heart. WE are interested in time, we all clock in and count the time we have spent, the work we have done.” 

In the parable, the first and the last get the same wage. 

“It is the widow's mite He is interested in. It is not the amount of money, it is the woman's heart.”

As I read this, I thought of Mary and Martha. God’s desire is for Marys to sit at his feet rather than Marthas with their long service to-do lists. Again it’s not about what we do but about our heart.

“The wasted years, the barren years, the years the locusts, canker-worms and caterpillars have devoured until there was nothing apparently left. [Of those years] He says, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” If you think of it in terms of what you can do in your strength and power, then time is of the essence, of the contract. But we are in a realm in which that does not matter. - He can give us a crop in one year that will make up for ten.”

Frederik Buechner said, “People are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains, but not for a God who gives as much for an hour’s work as for a day’s.”

This was a good word for me. As someone who has been dealing with burnout and lowered capacity over the past few years, I found this refreshing. God is not a whip-cracking slave master. He doesn’t expect production or even hard work. He wants our hearts.

I found comfort in the Parable of the Talents as well. It feels like in the past, perhaps I had five talents to invest. But lately it’s felt more like I have only two. But I haven’t just sat down and buried what I’ve been given. I have been using what little I have for the Lord.

And so dear friend, perhaps you are where I am with limited capacity for whatever reason. God is not expecting you to invest 5 talents if you only have 2 to begin with. Give what you have, yes, but recognize honestly where you are and give your 2 mites’ worth if that’s all you have to give. Let God give the increase. Perhaps he’ll give a year’s worth of crop that will make up for ten.