Today is election day in America. It is all we have heard about for months. It is all we will talk about today. By evening most of us will be honed-in on the election results. Today is our great day of choice. I will not, for a minute, pretend that this blog will be either consumed or remembered.
Choosing. It matters. Just before Joshua was about to cross the Jordan, he asked the wilderness wanderers, “Choose this day whom you will serve…” Elijah admonished the people by saying, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is god, follow him.” Even Pilate, when deciding between Barabbas and Jesus ask the crowd, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
Life is full of choices—and consequences.
Thus, is stewardship. God has given us much, and much responsibility with what God has given us. We have money…what do we choose to do with it? We have time…how will we spend it? We have talents…where will they be put to use? Stewardship is management of our life resources for the greater good of God’s will and way. And our choice is often the same as in bible times. Will it be God we serve or the gods of the society around us? Will it be Christ or the values that get pumped into us 24/7 on TV? Will it be the Spirit of grace and abundance, or the worldly spirit of shortage and fear or that our neighbors are as greedy as we are?
So often we give in to the illusion that things “are the way they are” and that we can’t fight or change the outcomes. We lay limp and hand over our power of choice. That is bad stewardship.
Choose a higher way. Choose a better consequence. Every motive, every minute, every dollar is an opportunity to choose Christ. That is what stewardship asks of us. That is what the gospel demands of us. When we do it, we know that with the Spirit’s wind at our back, our choices will make a mighty difference.
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Glenn Howell
Director of Development
United Methodist Foundation of Indiana
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