Articles
Creatively Righteous
Creatively Righteous
Humans are ingenious money-makers. People design apps for phones that make them millions, people sign up for Uber and transform their cars into taxis, they refurbish old furniture and sell it, they become secret shoppers, they sell their class notes to students who skip, they (this is no joke) rent themselves out as friends with a company called “Rent a Friend,” they review music from potential new artists, they open their homes and let travelers “couch surf,” they cook meals for groups of strangers who sign up online and are willing to pay for home-cooked meals (hey, it’s cheaper than restaurants), they sell their hair, they sell their plasma, they go around stealing copper from old AC units in junkyards. Jesus understood how money ignites our creativity and ingenuity.
In Luke 16, Jesus tells about a rich man’s finance manager on the verge of being fired. “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?’ I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.” (Luke 16:3-4). Up against a wall, this man got creative! He knew his job was over, but he had a chance to build bridges and make friends to help him in the future. On his last day, he went to everyone who owed his boss money and cut them a deal. “How much do you owe my master? And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’” (16:5b-6). This manager cleverly asked all his boss’ debtors to change the amount they owed on their bills! For one, that would make him friends with the debtors because he saved them money. Two, if, for some reason, down the road these debtors refused to help him, he could blackmail them since they were the ones who actually changed the writing on the bill! He could argue, “If you don’t help me, I’ll tell the rich man you were the one who changed the bill!”
Jesus does not condone this man’s behavior. He calls him “unrighteous.” However, Jesus observes, “the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.” (16:8b). In other words, worldly people are more resourceful and creative about securing their physical well-being than God’s people are about securing their spiritual well-being! Heaven should fuel our creativity! Surprise people with gifts, be a mentor to a younger Christian, pay for the person behind you at the drive thru, babysit for a couple to give them a night out, put a care package together for a homeless person, read the Bible to the elderly in nursing homes, or whatever else we can think of to please the Lord. The point is, let’s be more creatively righteous than the world is creatively worldly!
