...And Everything In It

Stewardship.

It's a funny word. Merriam Webster defines it as a noun meaning "the caring and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care." In verb form, to steward means simply "to act as a steward for" or to carefully and responsibly manage something entrusted to one's care. The nuance is that anything entrusted to your care is owned by someone else.

Jesus taught quite a lot on stewardship in his short ministry, from the Parable of the Tenants (Matt 21:33-46) to the Parable of the Bags of Gold (Matt 25:14-30), among others. His message is pretty clear that we are to be careful, responsible managers of others' resources when they are within our sphere of control.

As servant leaders, the resources under our control are people.

Think about that for a second.

God has trusted you with good stewardship of another human being - a son or daughter of God.

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The weight of that statement should never be discounted. It doesn't matter whether you are managing one person's work or leading a division of thousands, you, Servant Leader, are called to steward carefully and responsibly.

I know, we usually encounter stewardship when discussing money. It is relatively easy to wrap our human brains around everything God does to put dollars in our bank account; therefore, we have a responsibility to pay our tithes. But people are a different story altogether. Doesn't free will come into play? What about an unfair situation at work? Am I still called to be a good steward when the boss is throwing his pearls to swine?

Well, yes. You see, Servant Leader, God's command is for us to be good stewards of everything He gives us - and God gives us everything. Yes, His plan is the reason we have food on our table and cash in our account. His plan is also the reason we visit this doctor and not that one, work at this job and not the other one, and have this employee on our payroll who is in need of our mentoring, and not that "fire and forget weapon" that makes our job easier, not harder.

"The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters." (Psalm 24:1-2, NIV)

Yes, we are called to be good stewards, even more so of those with more need. It isn't because God will reward us more for doing more, but because everything is His and He expects careful, responsible stewardship of all His possessions, to include His sons and daughters - even the lost ones.

So, don't lose patience and don't lose hope. When stewarding God's people, you are never throwing your pearls before swine if you are following Jesus' command to "love one another as [He] has loved you." (John 15:12, NKJV).

Because caring responsibly for one of God's sons or daughters is never to be taken lightly.

(Photo: Pinterest)