Survival

 Luke 16

In the story of the dishonest manager, a man is fired for squandering his boss's money. With what little time he has to organize the books and turn it over to his employer, he decides to change the value of the debts owed to his boss.  He thinks this will curry favor with these folks when he is looking for a new job.  He has actually staked everything on his boss's honor and here's how; in that time sometimes a wealthy benefactor would reduce the money owed to them during hard times. It was a sign to others that they understood the pain of the people, and that they were compassionate. By reducing the debts of these business partners, not only does the dishonest manager look good, it also makes his boss look good.  If the boss decides to punish the manager for his actions, it reflects very poorly on the wealthy owner. The dishonest manager has outsmarted his boss!

Jesus uses this story not to commend tricky business dealings; in fact, its quite the opposite.  He says he wants all of his disciples to be smart in the same way, except not to benefit themselves, but to do what's right.  He wants us to use 'every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival.' He says this life is not about getting by on good behavior. Real life is leveraging every asset to make the world a better place. Real life is getting by on just the essentials so you can be focused on what really matters. Real life is finding ways to do good in bad circumstances and still surviving. The dishonest manager did this, but to benefit himself. Now its time we do the same, not only to benefit others, but to help the world survive.