Have you ever met a true entrepreneur?
I’ve only met a few.
They are always up to something, always extending and overextending, juggling liquid and solid assets. You are never really sure if they are really wealthy or so broke, so in debt, that they seem to defy the laws of physics.
They start up, sell off, retire and start a new career, over and over again.
I have known plenty of people who work really hard, who are great at sales, at managing and engineering, eccentric inventors, those who manage their assets responsibly and generously, but very few true entrepreneurs.
They often have a manic energy, a recklessness and a slyness about them. They are fascinating.
They are all different from each other.
Their motivations are different.
But, what they have in common with each other, that sets them apart from the rest of us, is that they can see some part of the world better than most, they are see-ers, and they see a way to respond, a way forward.
And here’s the thing, they usually fail!
Their gift is that they are really good at failing, they do it all the time, and they start over again and again.
It isn’t so much that they are successful as it is that they are not afraid of taking risks and they are good at recovering from failure, in fact, failure and success don’t seem to be the point at all.
Most of us make careers out of moving things, people and ideas around. They do something else. They make something new happen. They create something that wasn’t there before. For some it makes money, for some, it creates beauty or community. Something new happens.
Keep awake, Paul tells us, keep awake and wait for the arrival of the new creation.
He writes of a busy kind of waiting, of encouraging and building up each other. If you have ever tried that, or seen others do it, you know that it is a never-ending project, encouraging and building up each other. We all need it.
The parable of the Talents, from Matthew, imagines a productive waiting, not a passive waiting.
We are shown a grace that inspires an entrepreneurial spirit that takes risks, that is not afraid to fail and start over and over again.
The one who hid the talent, who played it safe, is cast out because he imagined God to be harsh and unjust, inspiring fear and caution. Fearful passivity is not what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
The Kingdom is a gift that inspires hope and courage, risk and creativity, a willingness to fail and start again.
For the kingdom of heaven- is as if we are given a gift, out of nowhere, that is so overwhelming, so wonderful, that it inspires us to build up and encourage one another when everything else around us tries to tear us down and apart.
We are entrepreneurs of the Kingdom. We have been given an amazing gift in the person of Jesus and God says to us, “Surprise me.”
We give our lives to God in response to Jesus and God gives our lives back and tells us, “Surprise me, make your life something amazing.”
Build up one another.
Encourage one another.
As God has done so let us do for one another.