“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” – Luke 12:48
During the early years of my business career whenever my colleagues and I would gather socially the conversation inevitably revolved around making money. Over the years, though, our conversations began to shift – from how to make money to how to make a difference. I’m not sure whether that was a result of our respective net-worths growing larger, or that we were simply growing up. Whatever the reason – and it was most likely some of both – we all probably experienced in one way or another what the late Bob Buford described as “halftime” in his popular book by the same title.
For certain it was Bob Buford who changed my life in that regard. (I never knew Bob personally, although I met him once briefly. But his influence on my life has been profound, and for that reason I pay tribute to Bob Buford who just recently passed away.) It was in 1994 I stumbled across a review in the newspaper of his then newly published book Halftime inspiring me to buy a copy and read it. As the subtitle explains, the theme of the book is about “Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance,” a message that certainly transformed my own game plan.
As Buford explains, “The first half of life has to do with getting and gaining, learning and earning. Most do this in the most ordinary of ways: getting an education, entering the work force, starting a family, buying a house, earning enough money to provide for needs as well as a few wants, setting goals and climbing toward them. . . [But the] second half is more risky because it has to do with living beyond the immediate. It is about releasing the seed of creativity and energy that has been implanted within us, watering and cultivating it so that we may be abundantly fruitful. It involves investing our gifts in service to others – and receiving the personal joy that comes as a result of that spending.”
No doubt my business colleagues and I, having each experienced some sort of “halftime” epiphany, had shifted our focus from a quest for success, which we had all achieved at some level, to significance; that is, the responsibility that comes with it. For Jesus makes it crystal clear, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”