The Shrewd Manager
There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
Luke 16:1-9
The most puzzling parable Jesus told. The manager is not praised for dishonesty but for something rarer: taking his future seriously enough to act decisively in the present.
A crooked manager used temporary money to secure his coming reality. Jesus' point lands like a dare: worldly people plan for their future with more energy than believers plan for eternity. Money is temporary. Use it to do eternal things, especially for people.
Convert your currency before it expires. Every dollar spent on generosity, relief, and the spread of good news is wealth wired ahead to a place where you are going to live.