Faithful Steward

"Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful." I Corinthians 4:2

I have written in my prayer journal, "May I be a steward found faithful, and may I know that I'm a steward not only of things, but of ever moment, opportunity, and relationship in my life." I've found that to be a convicting prayer, and one impossible to live out apart from His grace and power.

I think it is symptomatic of the American church that we think of stewardship only in terms of how we handle our money and goods. We center it on the tangible, but so much of it, maybe most of it, is very intangible indeed. God doesn't just put money and things into our hands, He also places our time there, and how we use that time. He places people into our "hands" as well. Our wives, husbands, and children. He also gives us random people on an almost daily basis. How we relate to them, "steward" them, means everything. More often than not, we see these people as human interruptions instead of His divine appointments. He brings them to us as opportunities to share His life in us with them. We encounter them in the form of the waiters and waitresses in restaurants. The cashier in the checkout line, and yes in the difficult people we can come across each day. He's entrusted them to us for a moment, but how we steward that encounter can reach into eternity.

The sad reality is that we can feel ourselves deeply in love with Him, yet remain oblivious to who and what He's placed around and before us. We are so absorbed in our own lives and "stuff" that we notice little of anything else. God arranges encounters for us every day with the expectation that we will in some way, show the living Christ within us in that encounter. He entrusts us with people He is drawing to Himself, or, with situations in which we have opportunity to display His glory. But we don't see them that way, and so the person goes unnoticed and the opportunity ignored.

As a pastor and minister, I can be deeply convicted on this. Too many times I have been totally focused on building my church or ministry, all the while missing people and opportunities that He'd placed before me. People and opportunities that I didn't see as helpful in reaching my ministry goals. I was not a steward found faithful in those places. Where in your life might you confess the same thing? Are you able to go on living with that?

This morning, a brother pastor and I were leaving our men's prayer meeting. Our church serves as a voting center for our city. Sitting on the couch as we walked by was a weary looking election official. We struck up a conversation with her and she just shared her total weariness in a day that hadn't really begun yet. We prayed with her and she overflowed with gratitude for that simple act of stewardship. She told us that we had no idea of how much she needed that prayer. This is what it means to be a faithful steward. I want to be better at it. Much better. I want to be found a faithful steward. How about you?

Blessings,
Pastor O