Not Self-Made
Stop what you are doing right this moment and look around at the room you are sitting in. How many of the things you see did you have a direct hand in producing? For instance, the computer you are using to read this blog – did you manufacture it? If you did, did you also manufacture the processor and other electronic components? Did you put together the monitor? Did you manufacture the plastic, or refine and cast the aluminum, did you process the silicon, the other various minerals for the screen? How about the food you eat, and the clothes you wear?
The chances re extremely likely that you are responsible for very few of the things you consume or use every day. The point of this exercise is to help us remember that we are totally dependent upon sources outside of ourselves for much of what we need to live or to use everyday. Nothing is self-generated, everything arises out of something that preceded it. We owe our entire existence to things that we had nothing to do with producing.
Consider for a moment how counter-cultural it is to say this. There is the myth of the “self-made man” that still seems in this globalized economy to circulate. Doug Adams, one of my seminary professors, used to say this: "Do you know how you can tell a self-made man? He has no belly button." All of us come from somebody before us. We are not self-generated. How many comments in the recent political campaign expressed the idea that we needed to preserve our hard-earned living, as if the speaker was solely responsible for keeping the economy afloat? The fact is, we are all responsible, and we are responsible in an interdependent manner. There is not a single CEO of any corporation who can boast of their company’s financial success who accomplished it without the labor of hundreds if not thousands of hard laborers, clerical workers, mid-management personnel and so on. Frankly, I don’t think God considers the CEO’s work to be any more significant than the janitor’s. Everybody contributes to get the job done, and to produce whatever product is sold or service rendered.If we follow this line of reasoning back far enough, we come to realize that we are dependent upon the providence of God for everything. This realization has profound implications for stewardship, and our thoughts about what is ours and what we can give to the church. William How has expressed it this way:
We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate'er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.
May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our first-fruits give!
Nothing is ours alone. It all comes ultimately from God. What difference might this make in our lives and in our giving if we thought about our financial resources, our time, our talents and abilities, and our service to be on loan from God? How might we treat them differently? Stewardship is ultimately a spiritual practice. Stewardship helps to incline our hearts to God by directing what we do with the substance of our lives. Jesus knew this. That is why he talked more about money than he did about prayer. What we do with our money is an indicator of the priorities of our hearts.
More tomorrow.
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