Editor's note: Today we begin the in depth discussion of the second alternative of Stewardship. Because of the unexpectedly high level of interest in the Alternatives, Richard was able to get a discounted quantity of his book Stewardship of the Heart for Meridian readers. The book begins with a short novel about a variety of people discovering the need to replace their Ownership Attitudes with Stewardship Attitudes. If you would be interested in receiving a copy, write to Richard@meridianmagazine.com.

For me personally, and for my family, stewardship has become a way of looking at everything — a way that has increased peace and enhanced joy. The word or the concept is like a lens. It turns things into a new focus and causes me to see them in a completely different context, to see them as they really are, and sometimes even to glimpse them as God would wish them to be.

The Apostle John admonished us to “know the truth” and promised that “the truth shall make you free.” There is great freedom in the truth of stewardship. Once we mentally release ourselves from the burden, the inaccuracy, and the “prematurity” of ownership, we lighten and enlighten ourselves.

For me, life is a question, and stewardship is a new answer, or at least a new way to grasp and pull together and use the oldest eternal answers.

Stewardship and ownership are not just two way of dealing with material possessions. They are two alternate ways of thinking about everything in life, from our talents to our opportunities to our children.

This column does not suggest that everyone live like Gandhi or Thoreau or sell all they have and give to the poor, or that we all adopt a completely Spartan life or live communally. It is not a book on lifestyle. Rather, it is a book on a mindset (or heartset) that can free us of the cares of ownership and help us see our lives as I believe God would have us see them.

Each person’s stewardship is unique. Each of us has separate and distinct foreordinations. Therefore, there is no standard formula, no pat answer. The goal of these next several columns is not to provide ready-made answers but to produce perspective and stimulate thought — the very thought that can work within us, prompting prayer and inspiration, and accessing us to real answers form the real source.

We come to this earth that our Father has made for us and receive gifts that are ours as stewardships but still belong to Him. He wants all good things to become ours eternally, and in this sense stewardship is not an opponent of ownership but a precursor to it and a preparation for it.

But ownership in the worldly context of “I earned it, I deserve it, it’s mine” is the vehicle of pride and the enemy of stewardship. The term ownership, as used in this book, refers to the prideful form, which forgets both the source and the nature of our gifts. The term stewardship is the accurate acknowledgment of where all came form and whose all is.

Quotes to Get Us in the Mood

One good way to get into Stewardship is to review several wonderful quotes that relate to the false "Deciever" of Ownership and to the far-better "Alternative" attitude of Stewardship.

Don’t struggle as you read to find every level of meaning and inference of every quote or story. Relax and enjoy them but do try to see how much is connected to the negative ramifications of perceived ownership or to the positive outgrowths of an attitude of stewardship.

A church leader was asked why he spent so much time at the church and so little time with his growing family. “The Lord needs me,” was his reply.

He was wrong. The Lord may use us, but He does not need us. We need Him. And our families need us. And the eternal stewardships of our families mean more to God (and should mean more to us) and any mere temporary assignment.

Thoreau once likened going to jail with owning a farm. Both confine and control us. We are encumbered by things we think we own.

Thoreau also said: “Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them”

And maybe Thoreau's most pithy comment of all: “Men have become tools of their tools.”

Today: A Time for Stewardship

Truth never changes,
But relevance does.
God’s ownership and our stewardship
Have always been as true as they are now,
But perhaps never as relevant.
Because, today,
Society’s sentiments slide us and suck us
In opposite directions,
Off toward getting and having, and particularly toward
Wanting more.
History’s graphs of greed, materialism, and stress
And peaking
Even as the second advent and the new world approaches.
The forces of dark apply deceit
In layer of pride, and pre-occupation with possession.

We look to light, place in His path the palm branches
Of being and giving.
We learn who we are and whose we are,
Using His gifts and our agency
To discover His joy and ready His way.
Now, more than ever, in these last scenes,
Of the closing act,
He uses stewards, and we need stewardship

My hope is that you who read this column now begin to see that
Stewardship has many facets and dimensions
That it is the root and the trunk
Of so many of the qualities which we seek
And which we need now more than ever.

For the next several columns, we will continue to explore Stewardship — as an attitude and as a key Gospel truth. See you back here next Friday when we will talk more about what Stewardship is and about how we each can achieve more of it.

Again, if you would like a signed copy of Richard's book Stewardship of the Heart, write to Richard@meridianmagazine.com

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