Support Via Proxy
Are you a good steward?
We hear about stewardship when the treasurer in our church presents the annual report of finances, and we are asked to contribute, but stewardship is not about giving.
It is about caring for someone else's property or about providing supplies and service to another.
Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. - 1 Peter 4:10
In today's reading, Peter tells us to be good stewards of God's grace. Whatever it is God has graced us with, we should use to serve others.
In other words, the gifts we have are not ours, but are God's and we are merely stewards, servers, deliverers, vessels of his grace.
Wow. This is not the way we see ourselves, is it? We are possessors, owners, creators, not carriers.
If we change the way we perceive ourselves, everything else in our lives changes. The shift from ownership to stewardship is a huge one, one that may be too big for many to make.
The first thing that comes to mind is that those of us to whom much has been given need to use our fortunes to help those in need.
That's where the giving comes in. The treasurer would be very happy about that.
But stewardship is not about charity. It doesn't come from pity or guilt. It is about being equipped to help. We are all given something that is God's gift, to be used to help others.
When I see something that needs to be done, I need to take stock of my abilities and see how I can help. If we all did that, imagine what a difference we could make.
I watched a video about a high school student, Kai Klopfer, who is determined to develop biometrics for handguns so that only the owner of the gun can fire it, preventing accidental firings, common among children who find the guns in the home.
Everyone he talks to tells him all the reasons his approach won't work, but he doesn't give up. He won a $50,000 grant to make a prototype using a real weapon and he hopes to have that project completed this year when he graduates.
God has given him a gift and he is putting it to use. How much more could he do if we all added our gifts, not our money, to his cause?
I think the main reason we fail to change the world for the better is that we send our support via proxy. We give from the wallet as if it is the only resource we have.
What we need to do is roll up our sleeves, put on our thinking caps and get busy using all the great talents we were given.
What can I use my gifts to accomplish today? If we started each day with that thought, what would the world be like tomorrow?
More to come...
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