Appreciate the Hustle

In this day and age it seems that everybody has a hustle. From the little old lady down the street in the 'hood who sells "Cold Cups" out of her house to the actors, actresses, and singers who are choosing to be on reality shows while they try to wrangle up a new television or movie role to star in or a new CD to put out. I ain't mad at them. Everyone knows that the economy is not great and that families as well as individuals have had to come up with creative ways to maintain the standard of living they had before the recession. 50 Cent, being the philanthropist that he is, has even offered women the opportunity to, "have a baby by him, baby, and be a millionaire." LOL. =)


Now some Christians frown upon the D-boy who makes his money by selling drugs on the corner (we frown upon the activity, not the person, let's not forget that we are good Christians who love everybody, =) ). Some Christians might also frown on famous athletes (who also happen to be known adulterers) who make millions of dollars in endorsements as well as millions for putting a ball in a hole. Some Christians might also frown on the trollops who are probably lining up to take 50 Cent up on his offer but let's face it, no matter what you might say about them or how you boot your face up at them when you see them on television, people in the world find a way to make that money, honey. And guess what, Jesus appreciates the hustle.


Now I know I lost about half of you right there but give me a chance to explain. I'm not saying that He appreciates the negative ways people go about getting money I'm saying He appreciates "the hustle." There's a big difference... Like Madea said, "Just stay with me and I'm going to bless you." LOL.


Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 16:1. Now I usually interpret the scriptures in my own bourghetto way but this time I'm just going to copy and paste it from Bible.com. After all, this is Jesus talking. =)


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Luke 16 (New Living Translation)

Parable of the Shrewd Manager

  
   Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. ² So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
   ³ “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. ⁴ Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
   ⁵ “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ ⁶ The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.^[a]’
   ⁷ “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.^[b]’
   ⁸ “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. ⁹ Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.^[c]
   10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. ¹¹ And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? ¹²And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
   ¹³ “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
   ¹⁴ The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. ¹⁵Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.
   ¹⁶ “Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in.^[d] 17 But that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God’s law to be overturned.

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Now before I get to how I know Jesus appreciates the hustle let me break down this parable because it's really good. The header of the passage calls the manager a shrewd manager. I crossed out shrewd in a my Bible and wrote "crooked." Ol' dude was using the rich man's money for personal expenses. I know they're synonyms but shrewd sounds too nice; he was crooked. Anyway, all it took was for me to read verse one for me to be mad at the manager. In my mind I was like, "How does he have the nerve to waste what's not even his!?!" And then after verse two I was like, "Ha ha, that's what he gets." Then the manager took two verses to think about it but by verse five he was getting his hustle on. 

Now verse eight is where they lost me. The version above said the rich man admired the manager for being so shrewd and my Bible says, "the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted so shrewdly." I had to read that two times because I was like, "What?" Then I kept reading and it started to make more sense. The rich man was like, "Dude I can't even be mad at you because you know how to take care of yourself. You are a hustler for real." Here Jesus was acknowledging that people in the world sometimes do a better job of taking care of themselves and making stuff happen that us Christians. 

This scripture teaches us that when we have financial opportunities we need to make the best of them so that we have money to help the poor and others who are in need and also so that we will have the resources we need to help bring others to Christ. Also, how we use our money shows our integrity. Jesus says that if He can't trust you with worldly wealth how can He trust you with true riches. Then many times we're asking God for more money but we're not paying tithes on the little money we have. Jesus is saying that if He can't trust you to pay tithes and do right with the little money you have now then you can't be trusted to pay tithes when you have more money. 

Now I'm not saying that money is everything and that we should completely focus on money but I am saying that we could learn a lesson or two from the world so that we can "hustle for Jesus." The reality of the situation is that in most cases it takes money for ministry to be effective. If everybody in the church is sitting in there broke then they're not in a position to be able to help the poor and others outside the church and that is what we are called to do. The church is bigger than those four walls that we go to on Wednesdays and Sundays and if we're going to be effective outside of walls it's going to take money. So get your hustle on! I have this written down in my Bible and I'm pretty sure I didn't come up with it myself but I might have... Anyway, it says, "use adversity to stimulate your creativity." Yes the economy is bad. Yes there are beaucoup people who are unemployed and you might be one of them. Use this time to come up with a new hustle. What creative ideas has the Lord given you that you are just sitting on? Imagine if the Lord were the rich man and you were the manager. Are you wasting His possessions- the gifts, abilities, talents, and money that He has given you? Do you need to be fired??? I'm just asking. =)

Now I'm not a prosperity preacher, nor do I think that preachers should solely teach their congregations how to get money and ignore teaching about salvation and sin. However, if we as Christians are going to be in a position to help others and to be able to reach others who don't know Christ it's going to take more than putting a dollar in the collection plate on Sundays. It's going to require money. Just imagine how powerful the church would be if we were really about our Father's business and were united. As many Christians as there are in the United States when that earthquake struck Haiti if we were all on one accord we could have written a check for millions of dollars and signed it "Christians of America." The world knows how to hustle. We need to step our game up and do better, me included.

Let me leave you with this. I don't have money now but when I do get to be rich don't be hating. If I happen to ride up to church in my Bentley, don't be mad because if I have enough money to go out and buy a Bentley then my tithes checks have got to be banging- trust. =) We can't be haters when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ coming up. We have to rejoice with them and make sure that we're putting ourselves in a position so that we're next. People with large salaries are a blessing to churches because with large salaries come large tithes (and for those of yall who get money and don't pay your tithes it will be Hell to pay... Jk, jk. I'm not judging cause I don't want Him to judge me, but you know you're wrong and He will judge you. Once again, I'm just saying.) =)

Anyways, love you guys and this week I'm focusing on putting the word out about this blog so "tell yo' friends about me," LOL. God bless and remember, "appreciate the hustle." =)