100X Your Life
This is an adapted excerpt from Chapter 12 of my new book; please enjoy!
My job is to be receptive of the necessary tilling, so that I can receive the seeds of life and make them grow exponentially over time.
Parables are stories with a meaning or purpose behind them. That is why Jesus Christ used so many of them while teaching His disciples and the large crowds who gathered to hear Him speak. Matthew 25:14-30 tells one of the great parables of the Bible, it is the parable of the talents.
In this parable, there is a landowner who represents God, He gives His workers His property to use and develop. In the story God clearly gives differing numbers of talents to various people based upon what they can handle. One servant received five talents, another servant received two talents, and still another servant just got one talent. Verse 15 states, To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. God knows what we are capable of far better than we will ever know. The servant who received five talents quickly traded with them and gained five more talents. Notice the servant, by trading with the talents, had to take a risk with the landowner’s property, but it paid off. The servant who received two talents, did the same thing as the servant with five talents, only on a smaller scale, and ended up with two additional talents. However, the servant who received only one talent did not want to risk losing it, and so her buried it in the ground leaving it there until the landowner returned.
Verse 19 states, After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The servant with the five talents went first and he returned the five original talents plus five additional talents, which greatly pleased the landowner. Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! Notice that the landowner did not say “Go ahead and keep the talents and retire”, instead he said, I will put you in charge of many things. The joy in the servant’s life is in daily use of the talents to please the master.
The landowner then proceeded to have the same conversation with the second servant as the first, with the same proportional results.
Then, the servant with one talent came to declare that his fear of the landowner as being a hard man caused him to just hide his talent and not earn anything additional for the landowner. The landowner calls him, wicked, lazy servant! and says he could have at least loaned out the one talent to earn some interest. The one talent is taken from him and the servant is thrown into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The moral of the story is that the landowner (God) gives everyone differing amounts and types of talents, but He expects everyone to use those talents, over time, to bring Him more talents, to reach other people, and this effort should be the joy of our lives.
“Why would a good God allow you to develop Parkinson’s and cut short your effectiveness in life, let alone having to deal with the symptoms of this terrible disease?” I have been asked this question hundreds of times since I was diagnosed. My answer to this question may surprise you. Parkinson’s Disease has made me far more effective in my life and has greatly expanded my sphere of influence in other people’s lives. This brings me great JOY!
Do not get me wrong. Living with the myriad of degenerative effects of Parkinson’s Disease in my life is the greatest trial I have ever faced. There is no question that I will most likely live a shorter life span; not be able to work full-time for as long as I had planned; and spend a lot more money and time seeking medical care for my disease than if I did not have PD. I am anxious about what the future progression of the disease will do to my body and how much of a burden I will become on my wife and loved ones. I fear not being able to love my wife as much as she will have to love me by caring for my debilitating body.
One of the direct results of Parkinson’s Disease in my life is the shift in my focus. It has moved me away from being a successful “Warlord of Commerce” to becoming a person who wants to make a significant contribution towards helping others afflicted with PD. I have joined with other like-minded people to start a Parkinson’s Community Center in the Denver, Colorado metro area, called Parkinson’s Pointe.
There is another well known parable in the bible, one about “the good soil”, it comes from Mathew 13:8. Jesus explains that people are a lot like soil, and that God’s word is like a seed. Depending on how well each type of soil can accept and nurture the seed, some soils have the potential to multiply 30, 60, or even 100 times the investment of the sower.
I don’t know about you, but I truly want my legacy to be the 100X kind. Parkinson’s has been a real hardship for both myself and also those around me, and it will continue to be a growing challenge for the rest of my life. But I have learned that difficulties can be used to either harden our hearts or cultivate our souls for the better depending on how well we handle them. My job is to be receptive of the necessary tilling, so that I can receive the seeds of life and make them grow exponentially over time. I want to multiply the talents and seeds that I have received from the sower by a factor of 100.
My faith enables me to see that my season of life dealing with PD has a far bigger influence on my wife, children, grandchildren, friends, and co-workers than my life did pre-Parkinson’s. They are watching me like hawks to see if I can stay true to my faith and find the peace that passes all understanding. I have been devoted to Scripture memorization since my college years; now people want to see if I can live what I proclaim.
Fortunately, my landowner, Jesus, is here for me every step of the way. It is only through His strength that I have the ability to live my life daily in a fashion that hopefully pleases Him. I know for certain that when I am done dealing with Parkinson’s in my life, I will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, and I relish the idea of having a new, heavenly body.
Stay strong, God’s speed,
Greg Ritscher
Be sure to post in the comments below if you have some thoughts you want to share with everyone. Also, check out my new book, I wrote it for all of us!
