Story of the Three Employees

    One bright, summer morning, Fred, an owner of a manufacturing company, held a meeting with three of his employees: John, Chris, and Mike. He informed them that he would be going on a business trip and had decided to leave each of them in charge of separate portions of his business. He told John that he would leave him in charge of manufacturing. He told Chris that he would leave him in charge of marketing. And finally, he told Mike that he would leave him in charge of maintenance. After their meeting was over, Fred left for his trip.

    The next day, the three employees began working under their new responsibilities. John quickly began researching the entire manufacturing process. He found ways to cut corners, refine processes, and reduce overhead. Chris also dove into research and found ways to increase market share and promotion. Mike, however, decided to leave maintenance as it was for fear that he would mess something up.

    After Fred returned from his trip, he went to each of them to find out how they had handled their new responsibilities. John reported that he had reduced manufacturing costs by fifty percent. Fred was overwhelmed with joy and promoted John to Vice President in charge of Manufacturing. Chris also reported wonderful news, saying that he had doubled their number of customers. Fred was exceedingly happy with this as well and promoted Chris to Vice President in charge of Marketing. However, when Mike reported that he had left everything alone so that nothing would go wrong, Fred was not pleased at all. He told Mike that he should have at least done a small amount of research, even if he didn't implement his findings. Because Mike had done nothing with his new responsibilities, Fred fired him that same day and decided to give his salary to John.


    "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away." - Matthew 25:29 NLT



Many of you will probably recognize a similar story in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30). I tried to give the "Story of the Three Servants" a more modern setting. I am praying that this will touch base with someone out there and that through it all, God will be glorified.