Those who are trusted with something Valuable (by Kate M.)

I know the whole world says that your possessions are yours and all that money is yours and time is yours. You earned it. You bought it. You needed it. Good job. But what if we as a church decided that the things we own, the money we’ve worked for and our time awake or asleep really aren’t ours.

I’ve been personally playing with the idea for awhile now. “My money is not mine.” This is an easy thing to grasp for me because what is not the random earnings of playing with someone’s baby is given by my parents. Usually too willingly, I almost am begging to do some chores to make up for it. My residency card says “Be teisės dirbti” (Without the right to work); it's a bit humbling now that I think about it...

At any rate, whether the money and possessions I have are ‘earned’ or an allowance from my parents, isn’t everything ultimately from God anyway? Didn't He give me the ability to obtain these things? “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?” [1 Cor 4:7]. Equally, “The world and all that is in it belong to the Lord; the earth and all who live on it are his,” [Psalms 24:1]. Why do we insist that we own these things?

When friends have borrowed money, I’ve wanted for so long to say, "You owe me nothing. You don’t need to pay me back. What’s a few dollars/litas between friends anyway?" [Actually in one secular fiction book that inspired me, it was ‘forbidden’ say “I’ll pay you back,” between friends.] What if we could have a similar ‘policy’ between our brothers and sisters in Christ, between ministries, between missions’ organizations, between churches? The money we are given is God’s money. The comforts and necessities we are given are from God. Our time is a portion of God’s grace. Not that we give away everything we own RIGHT NOW AT ONCE and end up homeless in a financial crisis; but that we would take every day to give up everything we own back to God to ask, “How do You want me to use this for Your kingdom and people?” and if[when] the Spirit instructs/directs us, whether individually or collectively, towards a need, that we would give freely what is needed... How much more unified we would be as His body.

In the words of so many before me – all is Grace

-Kate