So lately in my church we’ve been talking about stewardship. Now, I’ll be honest, I’ve never liked the stewardship sermons. This time of year I find myself thinking “Oh no, today they’ll be talking about money.” Don’t get me wrong, I tithe my income and am generous with donations to charities; but today I found the sermon rather interesting. Today we talked about Matthew 6:19-24, but verse 21 stood out to me, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Here’s my take on the whole stewardship sermon. I wrote a post a while back in the beginning of the financial crisis about money titled “Ocean Views Aren't That Great”. My feeling is this; we are not just stewards of our money, we are stewards of our time, energy, talents, and lives. So instead of making stewardship all about donating money, we should instead focus it on a lifestyle of giving. Giving time to God and others, giving energy to God and others, giving of our talents to God and others; that’s what real stewardship is about. If I put God first in my life always, then the natural course of action would be to be generous with all that I have. Hypothetically I could be a great steward with money; I could give 12% to the church and extra to charity. However, if I do not give of my time, life, talents, energy… to God and those around me is it really worth it? I guess my point is this, stewardship isn’t such a bad thing, actually it is extremely important. Yet, I feel it has a focus on money which it is not, it relates to everything. Here on earth we don’t really own anything, we are stewards of it, entrusted by God, so it is only right that we give back to Him. Stewardship isn’t just about money, it’s about how we live our lives and we should focus on giving in all areas, not just financial ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment