Mosiah 2:20-21 -- On Unprofitable Servants

"I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another--
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants."
Mosiah 2:20-21


This is interesting, because I think God is telling us here that by almost every measure that our society values, we don't make the cut. At work if we aren't supporting the company and making it profitable, we're often laid off, and in God's own parable of the talents we like to think that we're not the guy who buried his talent, but by these verses, we probably are.

In fact, it is like we are the "unprofitable" side of every parable ever... the better side perhaps representing Christ... maybe a smattering of prophets. :) And yet, even if every story every told in the scriptures is there to teach us how to stop being the bad example, these two verses seem overwhelmingly hopeful to me... because they also mean that God isn't in it for the profit. He isn't some corporate entity blind to the importance of the people who work there. There must be another goal, and another way of assessing value, because even if we are all unprofitable servants, never able to pay back the time and effort that God has invested in us... he himself still tells us that we are loved, and of infitine worth. Unprofitable, but greatly loved, and learnign to do better.

Today, let's not lose the original lesson of these verses, that we need to be grateful to God for all that we have, and are... but let's not be disheartened by the message. We should also remember that God isn't in it for the profit. We are all here because we have inherent worth, and God loves us, and is teaching us how to live up to our potential.