Luke 19:20-24: in context

In the parable of the minas, a nobleman gives his servants money to invest while he is away. Two put it to work and gain more. But a third comes with the money untouched, wrapped in a handkerchief, and explains himself: I kept it hidden because I was afraid of you; you are a hard man, taking what you did not lay down and reaping what you did not sow. The master condemns him out of his own mouth: you knew I was demanding, so why did you not at least put it in the bank to earn interest? And he takes the mina away and gives it to the servant who had gained ten.

The revealing thing about the failed servant is his picture of the master. I was afraid of you, he says, because you are a hard man. He did nothing with what he was given not out of laziness alone but out of a distorted, fearful view of his lord, whom he saw as harsh and grasping. And that wrong picture paralyzed him; believing the master was severe and impossible to please, he buried the gift rather than risk it, and did nothing at all. The tragedy is that his fear did not even fit its own logic, for as the master points out, if he really believed his lord was demanding, he should have done more, not less. Fear of a God we imagine to be harsh and impossible to satisfy does not produce diligence; it produces paralysis, the burying of gifts, the safe nothing. How we picture the master shapes what we do with what he gives us. A servant who sees his lord as generous and trustworthy invests boldly; a servant who sees him as a hard taskmaster hides the gift and calls it caution. The distorted image of God is what buried the mina in the handkerchief.

Is a distorted, fearful picture of God, seeing him as harsh and impossible to please, paralyzing me and burying the gifts he has given, rather than freeing me to invest them boldly?