Opening My Mind To Learn

Luke 16:1-13 Lectionary Passage for Sunday, September 19, 2010

Of all the lessons I’ve gleaned from in the stories of Jesus, before this week I can’t remember much that I learned from reviewing this story of the manager who was a crook. A creative crook, but a crook none the less! As I took pause and gave the story a chance to question me, I realized that I had not learned much from this story because I had not opened my mind to believe that a crook had much to teach me. Or even a story about a crook. Seeing my closed-mindedness, I decided that I could not afford to close my mind’s door anymore to any lessons to be learned from this story.
The crook got caught and had little time to act before he was on the streets. He was in the moment of crisis willing to be honest about his lack of ability to make an honest living. He did not begrudge it, he just took the talent and ability he had, used it to develop his social support network, and therefore secure a future for himself, while in the process gaining some immediate cash flow for his boss and some immediate savings for his customers. He turned a crisis into a win-win of sorts, though through crooked means. Jesus must have shocked his listeners as much as he surprised me this week. I have lessons to learn from people and situations. I can, like the crook, use the tools of creativity and resourcefulness as means to a better end. I want to stop my judgment and dismissal of others. I want to be unafraid of learning life lessons from people which are different from me, or, maybe even more importantly, see that there are people which I have seen as far different than me, that are closer than I thought. I haven’t scheduled a prison ministry for the edification of the unincarcerated yet, but who knows?