***** The skit--titled "Proactivity vs. Waiting on God"--is taken from the parable in Luke 19: Luke 19.11-27 "While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said: A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. 'Put this moey to work,' he said, 'until I come back.' But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, 'we don't want this man to be our king.' He was made king, however, and returned home. THen he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned ten more.' 'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. "Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.' The second came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned five more.' His master answered "you take charge of five cities.' Then another servant came and said, "Sir, here is your mina, I have kept it laid away in a peice of cloth. I was afraid of you , b/c you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow. His master replied, "I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in , and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest? Then he said to those standing by , "Take his mina away fro him and give it to the one who has ten minas. Sir, they said, 'he already has ten!" He replied, "I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them--bring them here and kill them in front of me." PLAY: Chocolate factory owner gives his 3 employees company funds to use wisely during his leave of absence. Says something like "I know all 3 of you are God fearing men, and have the ability to use your God-given talents to invest this money properly for the benefit of the chocolate factory." First two guys invest--one expands the product line to include 3 new flavors of chocolate bunnys (profits follow). Another uses his engineering knowledge of Operations Research to improve the assebly line manufacturing process. Both reap benefits in the end, but there is the problem that their investments don't _immediately_ pay off. They go thru a struggle period where they don't know if their plans will succeed--perhaps at first they don't succeed--and are faced with the problem of "pro-activity vs. waiting on God" in that they have to consider one extreme change, say, quiting their job, vs. Waiting and hoping that God will give them success in their investments. Eventually, they both decide to "wait on God" in this situation, and they finally see their hard work paying off. Alternatively, the 3rd guy is unsure about what to invest in. He has the inverse problem of "proactivity v. waiting on God" b/c he wants God to come to him and tell him exactly how to invest--rather than risking making a mistake by using his talents to invest in a good idea. Wavering too long, he is still sitting on the money when the boss gets back, and is demoted to a lowly position in the company. I recommend making the struggles of "pro-activity v. waiting on God" fairly obvious, i.e., have the guy say at one point "Man! THis really looks to me like a decision between pro-activity vs. waiting on God!" =) Okay, I hope this inspired someone, later, -mike ****** By: Mike Neely