We have two lenses through which we can view the world. The one is ownership which is supported by our culture. The principle of ownership says that we own a certain amount of property and that we can do whatever we want with it within the legal parameters of the law. The underlying drive is to own as much goods and money as is possible during our life time. The other lens is that of stewardship as revealed in the teachings of Jesus. Stewardship says that we are entrusted during our life time with a certain amount of property, goods and money. We are given the freedom to do as we wish with them but the truth is that these things are not owned by us. They are entrusted to us for a short time. They belong to God and we are merely managing them. The truth is that we are responsible to God for what we do with them.
It is important to understand that everything we have-natural abilities, good looks, houses, cars, cash etc. – comes from God and has only been loaned to us for a short time. This is even true of our children and for the short time that we have them we are responsible to God for what we do with them while we have them. When we start acting like owners of things that have merely been entrusted to us is when things really get messed up because it totally violates God’s principle of stewardship. If you take a book from the library you don’t own it and have to return it after a period of time. You can’t give it away or let the dog eat it without consequences from the Library authorities. You are just a steward of the book for a couple of weeks. This clarifies the principle of stewardship and how we should view possessions from a Godly perspective.
Erick Bouwmeester
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