Passion and Preservation is the Motive of Elon Musk

Passion and Preservation is the Motive of Elon Musk

I hope all my readers and listeners have had a great April serving our great Savior and King, Jesus. Thank you for taking the time to study the scriptures with me on various topics every month. Because of your faithfulness in giving and praying, the ministry is off to an amazing start this year. Thank you!  

This month, I wanted to discuss passion, preservation, and motive. Elon Musk's life serves as a great example of the basic principles this parable teaches. I cannot say that there is a one-to-one correlation between Elon’s life and everything this parable teaches. Nevertheless, the principles are seen in Elon Musk's interviews and lectures over the past few years.  

And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’  And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management 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 removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ (Luke 16:2-4)

Elon has Plenty of Passion and Creativity to go Around

From this text, we see the manager's shrewdness had finally caught up with him, and he had to give an account of how he managed the master's possessions. He had enough passion and creativity before his last day at his management job that he turned the tide in his favor so that he would be taken care of after his rightful layoff. He knew he did not have the strength to dig and had too much pride to beg, but he could still swindle. It was his passion and creativity that eventually led to his preservation. Now let me make the correlation to Elon Musk.

I don’t know if he is a shrewd man—he does not seem to be —but I can say he is a passionate and creative man. He has either started or partnered with others to start several successful businesses and bought others, including Pay Pal, Telsa, Space X, Twitter, and NeuraLink. This man works upwards of 16 hours a day. His management skills, intellect, passion, and creativity are light years ahead of most of us. He has big overarching plans that guide his life, and no one sways him from these plans and goals.   

In this way, he and the shrewd manager were alike, although maybe having slightly different motives. According to this parable section, how does this all fit together for a lesson for us? I want to observe their passion from both the Manager and Elon. 

The manager was passionate about preserving his way of life by shrewd means. Elon has a passion for advancing his plans and goals by starting businesses that will—in his opinion—help the environment and humanity. Whether you agree with Elon or not, and no matter how much we dislike what the manager is doing in the parable, we can’t deny they both have the passion we should all strive for, and we will discuss this later.   

 Elon has a Desire to Preserve the Human Race

So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’  The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:5-9)

In these verses, we see the manager implementing his plan of preservation. He reduces what these people owe so that he can reap the benefits later. The owner even looked at the books, saw what he did and said, “Wow, he’s good at being shrewd.” This is the first time we are encouraged to reflect on our lives from the Lord in this parable.

Elon has been interviewed and stated that his overarching life goal is to preserve the human race by allowing us to live on multiple planets. He is starting Neuralink to enable paralyzed humans to function somewhat normally. Once again, whether you agree with Elon Musk does not matter according to what I am communicating here. What I am making us come to terms with is how the manager and Elon are focused on preserving life, whether that is selfish or radically heroic.    

The Lord is forcing us to come to terms with the passions and plans of perseverance of people who don’t know him. He is rebuking us. He says they are better at what they do than my children, who have the keys to meaning and purpose in life found in Me.

The Lord is not telling us to emulate the procedure of either Elon or the Manager, but He is giving us two principles to apply. We should have passion and a desire to advance human life through true preservation—by passionately introducing people to the Savior to preserve their eternal souls.

Let this either encourage you or rebuke you. When was the last time you were so passionate about someone knowing Jesus that you spent a 16-hour day praying, caring, and sharing God's truth with someone?  When was the last time you were so concerned about preserving someone's soul and the glory of God that you pushed past your fear of man? When was the last time you intentionally used your money to advance the cause of Christ by giving to those who are taking the gospel to the lost? May the Manager and Elon rebuke us all.

And how do we handle verse nine? Are we to be shrewd and use our wealth deceptively? No, that is not what the text means. We are to use our money so people can hear about Christ, and when you see them in heaven, they will rejoice in having you there as a friend because you contributed to their salvation through your time, talents, and treasures. You invited them over, took time out of your schedule to be in their home, and attended important events to show your support and love for them. You shared Christ with them because you were concerned for their eternal well-being. Verse nine is a bridge to verses ten through thirteen. It exposes us to our motives.           

Elon and the Manager’s Motive

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Luke 16:10-13)

The manager's motive was clear—it was all about preserving the self. Elon's motive may not be so clear. He says he wants to help humans who are paralyzed; he believes—with great conviction—that the only way to preserve humanity is to make us a multi-planet species. He believes one way to preserve our planet is to give people more transportation options by offering the option of buying a total electric vehicle.  

The text teaches that one's motive will not change if one is given a little or a lot. The key to the right motive is being faithful to the God who created us. If we have been faithful with worldly wealth, we can be trusted with the priceless gift of the kingdom of God and the Savior who gives us access to such an amazing kingdom. Is your motive in life to allow people to hear about the king in this amazing Kingdom? If it is, your love for God exceeds your love for earthly wealth.

I want you to take these last few moments with me, to be honest. If your motive is not described in the previous question, I suggest you do some soul searching, see what you need to loosen your grip on, and give that to the God who gave it. You need to realize that we are stewards. Releasing this to God will give you renewed passion and desire to see people's souls preserved for eternity in heaven, and it will purify your motives afresh in the Jesus who saved you. 

I pray that people like Elon and the Manager will provoke and inspire you to be more passionate about what matters: eternal life. Your world and nation depend on you being more passionate about your Savior. They need you to push past your fear and comfort to have conversations that will make them think and compare their lives to the truth that is the foundation for all life—even though they reject it.

Until next month, go out and share and proclaim the Gospel to see a life transformed because the truth worth sharing and proclaiming is the truth that transforms. 

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