Are you a manager or an owner?

Are you a manager or an owner?

Are you a label reader, do you look to see what is in the product you are consuming, and where it comes from?  If not you would be wise to do so, and as followers of Christ, you would be wise to look at the many warnings about money and possessions, for they can deceive a person into taking ownership and a state of being in control, forgetting your role of manager, not owner.

What are some of the warning labels in Scripture, one I recall is the dishonest manager’s money.  You can read the story in Luke 16:1-13, but I want to ponder on these verses: “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?”  King Solomon shared this warning label in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.  This too is meaningless.”  The Bible is full of warning labels against allowing a good gift from God to become a little god in your life, never forget, your skill set, your mind, your training are a gift from God, and the more you are given the more is required of you.  The apostle Paul in his letter to young Timothy has this warning label; “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief’s.”

My story, as a student is one of not understanding these truths; a person reaps what they sow, and as a child, most of my schooling was not seen as an investment in knowledge but in keeping me from enjoying fun things.  So later as I attempted college I got my return on my contribution as a fun loving student in the first twelve years of my education.  My poor management of the skills and mind the Lord had given me became a reality, I was reaping what I had sown, and when I looked into the mirror it was apparent it was not my teachers fault. 

So I returned to what my dad and mother had taught, hard work brings a profit and laziness brings only harm.  To give more than is expected and to not build debt into your life, wait and pray and hope, but do not become a slave to credit, and to give the Lord a tenth of all He has bless you with, and that became the model of my life for many years.   Much later, I came to the understanding that true joy and blessing were in giving, not in acquiring.  And I’ve experienced that as a manager of all my Master has entrusted to me, the more I trust Him, the more freedom I have and fear has less of a hold on my life.

My hearts desire is to be wise to my Master’s desires and I’ve found this warning label that I have taken to heart will settle the issue of trying to own what was never mine.  “Thus says the Lord: “Let the wise man not boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, and justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things I delight declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23)

I often will keep quotes and this one from Pat Morley “Man in the Mirror” (Solving the 48 problems men face) has shed light on the verse above. “When possessions and money become a surrogate for our real identity, who we are is tied to things that rust and rot away.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice