Storage units. Ever rented one? Maybe you are currently renting one, who knows maybe you have two or three storage units, there is nothing wrong with it, been there done that. The question is more are you getting a good ROI (return on investment) with this storage unit. It is understood that the renter pays a monthly or yearly fee for storing items of personal or monetary value in an environmentally and physically safe space. The storage unit industry recorded 39.5 billion dollars in revenue in 2021, so on the owner side of this investment, I would say it definitely can be a lucrative ROI. I guess where there might be some concern is on the other side of this business arrangement. I feel pretty certain that if I posed the question to someone that has a rented space for storage about whether they really needed to be storing the items in their unit the answer would be of course, absolutely. I'm not so certain that after a year or let’s say after three years the total of rental fees for your storage space won’t supersede the value of what is in your storage safe space. I'll be the first to admit from my own experience that after a few years of paying for a pretty big storage unit, I was prompted by my brother-in-law to take an evaluation of what was being stored and how much it had cost me to store said items and see if it really made sense. The outcome was mindboggling. I immediately began the process of retrieving what was of real value and moving it to our house, selling what wasn't really of personal value in the first place, and finally tossing out anything else that was just taking up space. Wow, that was an eye-opening experience, if you currently rent a storage space, even if it is just a "temporary" rental I'd advise you to perform an evaluation of your own ROI and see if you truly are storing items that need to be stored, used, sold, or discarded.
Today's FTM wasn't meant to be an infringement on the "Money Matters" weekly podcast, yet the stark comparison of how we utilize the storage unit industry to how we "store” our talents and time is worthy of an insightful comparison. Remember the parable in the Bible that Jesus shared about the talents/money? The successful businessman was leaving town for a while and entrusted a certain number of talents to each of three of his able minded servants to watch over his wealth. Or so he thought. Two of the three servants invested the talents which they had been entrusted with, while the third investor rented a storage unit and placed the one talent that he had been directed to watch over in safe keeping. Well if you are familiar with this parable things didn't work out too well for the last supposed investor. When he had to make an accounting of what he did with the talent he had been given, all he could do was return the one talent just like it was when he received it. No increase, and actually it might have been worth less depending on inflation, if there was such a thing back then! Point being, are we taking our God given "talents", our skills or spiritual gifts, and yes, our resources, and placing them in a storage unit waiting on the right time to use what we have been given? Trust me the time to use your talents is now!
Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6:19 where he warns about "storing" your treasures, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." What good is a talent if you don't use it? Oh yeah, I forgot, you're holding out until the right time, I can assure you that there is no better time to retrieve what you have stored, both literally and figuratively and start using it today. If you are being called to serve, side note you are, then serve. What are you waiting on a sign from above?? If that's it then today's Flat Tire Ministry thought is your call to action. Unlock that storage unit door, pull out the skills, talents or resources that you've hidden away and then lead, serve, just do what you were born and purposed to do!
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as
working for the Lord, not for human masters,"
Colossians 3:23
Coach Carter
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