You can bet
there will be a lot of money passing through many hands in the next couple of
months. Money, however, is not the only thing that will be passing. Time will
also be passing. Relationships will be progressing for better or worse. Some
folks will be passing away and these holidays may be their last. Then there
will be the decision to use what you have and for whom you will use it before
it passes away. All of this involves stewardship. It is required of a steward
to be faithful. (I Corinthians 4:2)
So, how will
you be a faithful steward over these next two months? The first place we
consider, but perhaps not the most important, is the stewardship of our
finances. A good steward will get the most out of every dollar, making
Washington scream from the stretch. A good steward will know where to invest
each dollar, understanding where it will provide the most benefit. The faithful steward will recognize sometimes a dollar spent on non
material things brings more benefit than material objects.
Many if not
most of us will do comparison shopping in person and online.
We’ll check the balances in our bank account and be semiconscious of our credit
card debt. We’ll decide who is worth an invitation to our Thanksgiving dinner,
and what gift at what cost is deserved by whom for Christmas. A consciousness
of money will be our constant companion at some level. Stewardship involves
both spending and saving. (I Timothy 6:10)
Money you
can keep. Time you cannot. Like money you can invest time, but once you have
spent that hour, it is has passed out of your control. An anonymous author has
written, “Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are
gone forever.” (A Treasury of the
Familiar, 1942)
A good
steward will use time wisely. Though we may not know how many days we have, we
are responsible for the moment we have now. We have one chance to use it before
it becomes the past. The past is irretrievable and the future is never
guaranteed. We each have the present moment. We alone are responsible for how
we invest it.
We must be
good stewards of relationships as much as we are of time and money. The truth
is there is no greater place to invest both money and time than in
relationships. We thrive on relationships and die a miserable death without
them. We are like the Lego blocks used in many seminars. We pick the blocks
that most suit us by the number of connecting knobs each piece has. Some have
only one. Some have twenty or more. We may closely relate to only one person,
or we may have many diverse relationships. Still we connect somehow to some
other part of humanity.
In those
relationships we both give and receive. We grow and enable others to grow. We
learn and we teach. In the best scenarios we see our world expand as we become
an integrated part of it. The world becomes a better place in which to develop
relationships because of how we have added to it.
In those
relationships grounded in a faith in God, we experience the profound truth of
the Body of Christ. (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12) In relationships governed by
the Spirit of God, we grow through mutual dependency and support. Our need for
each other becomes our strength to face life. Our true selves are revealed in
relationships. The greatest vision of ourselves comes through our relationship
with God through his Son Jesus Christ. (John 10:1-15, 14:6)
Over the
next two months, we will have many opportunities to practice stewardship. The
question we will have to answer with each decision will be what is our
motivation. Our motivation includes deciding to whom we will be answerable.
Whether it is a dollar, an hour, or a spiritual gift, we have to decide who
will be the ultimate beneficiary as we use it. Make it count for eternity!
