Earlier this week I wrote about J.J. Abrams directing Episode 7. I wrote that he’s a good choice to continue the Star Wars saga and that he will be a great steward of the franchise. Faithful reader and commenter, Mike, shared that Abrams’ faithful stewardship of Star Wars could encourage us to faithfully steward those things entrusted to us.
Sadly none of us have been entrusted with stewarding Star Wars (unless J.J. Abrams reads this blog, in which case, one of us has been entrusted with stewarding Star Wars). While we may not be the stewards of a galaxy far, far away, God has made us the stewards of everything he has given us.
Money.
Time.
Talents.
Opportunities.
God is the giver of all good things; everything we have is a gift from God. We don’t create anything on our own; it all comes from God. So in that sense we don’t own our lives or possessions, we’re simply stewards of everything God has given us.
J.J. Abrams didn’t create Star Wars; he’s simply its steward. We didn’t create our lives; we’re simply their stewards.
Understanding that reality can completely transform the lives we’re stewarding. Instead of holding on tightly to our time and money, understanding that we’re stewards gives us the freedom to let go.
It’s not our money.
It’s not our time.
They’re not our talents.
They’re not our opportunities.
God has given us everything we have and as faithful stewards we can give it all back to God and to his kingdom purposes.
Someone at our church anonymously gave money so three students could go to winter camp.
We have amazing leaders in our ministry who give up two nights a week and a week of vacation to spend time with students.
We have students who don’t use their talents with kids to earn babysitting money but to lead Bible classes.
Andy Stanley took an opportunity to share biblical leadership insights when he was asked to preach in front of President Obama.
God gives us so much and we can choose to greedily hold onto it or to give it back to him and his purposes. We all hope that J.J. Abrams will be a good steward of Star Wars. The world would be a much better place, though, if we invested more energy into our stewarding efforts.
But the world will also be a better place with an awesome Episode 7.
How do you insure you’re faithfully stewarding all that God has given you?
Great post, Scott (and not just because I unwittingly suggested it!). And a tough question for reflection at the end. I guess I don’t know if I am being as faithful as I could be, but I take some comfort in trying to steward what I can faithfully, remembering that the third servant in Jesus’ parable of the talents would have been commended had he even put the money in the bank to earn some interest. We could always be better stewards, but the worse sin, perhaps, is not even attempting to be stewards at all.
Great real-life examples, too. I think you’ve got the makings of your congregation’s next stewardship sermon….!
May you live long and prosper in the Force. Or something like that. 🙂