DOES IT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS?
by Randy Harp
As a child, one of my favorite movies was The Princess Bride. I watched it with my children recently, and though I could still quote half the movie, for some reason they just could not connect with it. To me, that is inconceivable! In the movie, Inigo Montoya says to Vizzini, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” That statement applies to the “Christianese” we often hear and use in Christian circles — like the word stewardship. Do we fully understanding its meaning? If we do, it should change the way we see the world and how we make decisions daily.
Elmer Towns, in his book Praying the Lord’s Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough, illustrates stewardship with a story about a father who bought his son French fries. When the father reached over to take a fry from his son’s tray, the son slapped his father’s hand and said, “Don’t touch my French fries.” Shocked, he thought, “Why is my son so selfish, I have given him a whole package of French fries and I just wanted one?” The father knew he bought the fries so they really belonged to him. In his frustration, he thought about never buying his son French fries again. Better yet, he thought about buying ten more packages of French fries and making his son eat every single one. I can relate to the story with both of my sons.
Biblical stewardship is recognizing God owns everything and He has asked us to manage and maximize all He has provided. Psalm 24:1 states, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” First Corinthians 6:19-20 gets even more personal when it says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Oftentimes stewardship is only applied to money. Yes, finances are one aspect of stewardship, but it goes much further.
FOUR AREAS OF STEWARDSHIP
There are four basic areas of stewardship: time, talents, treasure, and testimony. But there are only two ways to manage them — we either waste them or invest them.
Time. In 1930, economist John Keynes wrote the essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren.” In it, he predicted that, because of coming technology, within 100 years we would be working 15-hour workweeks (or three hours per day). He believed one of mankind’s greatest problems would be what to do with all their free time. However, according to a recent Harvard study, the average professional works at least 50 hours per week (with over half of those interviewed working 65 hours per week), and the average office worker has 36 hours of work piled up on his or her desk.
According to US News and World Report, people today sleep 2.5 fewer hours each night than people 100 years ago.
In 1995, the average person spent 35 minutes per day on the internet. Today, Pew Research Center reports 21 percent of Americans say they go online “almost constantly.” CNN reports teenagers average nine hours a day using some type of digital media. Hours upon hours are wasted playing mobile games or surfing through social media.
In reality, we each get 24 hours a day to manage. We can either invest it or waste it. Ephesians 5:16 calls it “redeeming the time.” Small investments over a period of time will always produce great results. This is true physically, with 30 minutes every day in an aerobic activity. It is true relationally, spending quality time with your spouse, children, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. It is true in every area of your life including professionally, recreationally, and spiritually.
Talents. God has given each of us talents and natural abilities. Tom Rath’s Strengths Finder 2.0 identifies 34 talents ranging from “Achiever” to “Maximizer” to “Woo.” For a small fee, you can even pay to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder analysis to learn your top five talents. Though I find great value in such research, it is not necessary in order to understand God has uniquely equipped you with many talents. Take time to do a personal inventory.
The phrase, “They are such a wasted talent” refers to an individual who does not live up to his or her potential. However, the true waste happens when we don’t recognize our talents have come from God and we don’t use them to serve Him, rather we serve ourselves. Using your talents to benefit othes and to glorify God is the best way to invest your talents — whether as a pastor, a teacher, an engineer, or a factory worker. The Apostle Peter refers to a talent as a gift and states, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).
Treasure. When we think of stewardship, finances are the first thing that come to mind — and likely it is the area most mismanaged. Many people today have the same problem early 21st-century movie star Errol Flynn had when he said, “I am having a hard time these days reconciling my net income with my gross habits.” One way many people mismanage finances is with credit cards. TIME magazine recently reported that, on average, every American between the ages of 18 and 65 has $4,717 of credit card debt. Assuming an average interest rate of 15 percent and a minimum monthly payment of $189, it would take ten years to pay off that amount. The total payments would amount to $22,869 for the privilege of borrowing the original $4,717. It is estimated the average American pays approximately ten percent of his or her household income toward interest payments. No matter how you crunch the numbers, Solomon’s principle remains, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).
Unfortunately, talking about finances in the church tends to make people uncomfortable. In reality, it should be addressed more often. There are over 2,300 verses in the Bible on the topic and approximately 15 percent of what Jesus said had to do with money or possessions. If a pastor followed the same ratio, he would dedicate eight Sundays a year to it. There are countless books and resources about managing money God’s way — from Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and his “Seven Baby Steps” — that can help us become better stewards of our finances.
Testimony. One’s testimony isn’t often mentioned in stewardship discussions, but it is just as important. Your testimony is your story, and only you have your story. God wants to use your story to help others. Unfortunately, many people mismanage their testimony by not sharing with others all God has done for them.
In Luke 8, after Jesus showed His divine power by calming the storm, he and his disciples sailed to the region of the Gadarenes. Here Jesus was confronted by a demon-possessed man. After Jesus healed the man, Jesus told him, “return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” Sharing your testimony isn’t complicated, it is simply telling the story of what God has done in your life. Today, many churches show a video testimony before an individual is baptized. This is a great way to share a personal story and be an encouragement to the church. Let’s be ready to share God’s story with others.
MAXIMIZING YOUR STEWARDSHIP
God not only wants us to manage our resources, He wants us to maximize them. In Matthew 25, we read the parable of the talents. Jesus, teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven, tells of a man who is preparing to leave town. The man assigns each of his servants various responsibilities — to one servant he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another servant a single talent. He gave to each according to his own ability. When the man returned, he settled his accounts with each of the servants. The first two doubled what their master had given them. The servant who received the single talent had dug a hole, buried the talent, and done nothing with it. The first two were rewarded handsomely while the third was punished.
This teaches us at least three lessons about maximizing the resources God asks us to steward. First, we must recognize it all comes from God. In the parable, each servant was given a certain amount of talents. The servants did not earn them. They did not even deserve them. The talents were simply given to them. We must realize all we have is because of the goodness of God on our lives. We may think we have earned our income, our house, our cars, etc., but a loving God provides all those things. It is dangerous to believe we deserve or have earned anything. As Job learned, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Our responsibility is to bless the name of the Lord.
When we understand the origin of our resources, we will seek to improve upon that which God has given us. The two servants who were rewarded increased what was given to them. They did not waste it, nor were they satisfied to simply use it. They worked hard to improve upon what they had been given. Too often we are satisfied with the status quo rather than taking the more difficult road of growth. We live in an age of instant gratification and shortcuts, but Proverbs 21:5 warns, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” If we are going to be good stewards of all God has provided, we must do the hard work to improve.
Maximizing our God-given resources also requires an eternal perspective. The master said to the first two servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” Everything we do as God’s servants should be with an eternal perspective. As Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” On this earth, we are bound by time, but we must live our lives with eternity as the backdrop. This will affect our priorities and our actions.