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Owner or Steward? Mine or from Him? Our former President challenged us all in 2012, and he might have had a valid point regarding these questions. Let’s go! 4-min, 47-sec read.
Listen to the audio version here:
I'll admit it. I'm a bit of a political junkie, and have been since I was a kid, back when my dad ran for the local school board. I follow the election cycles closely, and I've worked on a number of campaigns myself. So, I remember the 2012 campaign season well.
One situation sticks in my mind. In the middle of that presidential campaign, Barack Obama said four words that followed him for the rest of the race. “You didn't build that.”
He was talking about successful business owners, making the case that none of us gets there entirely on our own. His opponents pounced. Entrepreneurs all over the country bristled. I did, and I bet a lot of you did, too.
What do you mean I didn't build this? I took the risk. I worked the long nights. I made the sacrifices. I built the company.
Politics aside, Scripture asks us to consider something far deeper. Maybe we didn't build it. At least, not the way we think.
What Do You Have?
Paul asks a question in 1 Corinthians that can stop any man in his tracks:
What do you have that you did not receive?
Read it again, slowly. Think about your intelligence. Your health. Your education. The relationships and the opportunities that showed up at just the right time. Your ability to lead, sell, teach, create, invest, or inspire. Even the heart beating in your chest while you read these words. What part of it originated with you?
We worked. Absolutely. We made decisions and took risks. We kept going when quitting would've been easier. We got up early, stayed late, and made sacrifices other people weren't willing to make. Many of us still do these things every day.
Scripture doesn't diminish a bit of that. It just asks us to look one level deeper. Where did the ability to do any of it come from?
The Danger of Forgetting
Moses warned about this thousands of years ago. God was leading Israel into the Promised Land. Soon they'd have houses, land, food, livestock, and wealth beyond anything they'd known in the wilderness. And God knew exactly what could happen next. They might forget Him.
You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”
Maybe we've never said those words out loud. But a successful man can start believing them without ever noticing. I built this. I earned this. I made this happen.
Then comes God's correction:
But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.
Don't miss what He says. He doesn't deny that we worked. He doesn't deny we built something real. He simply reminds us of where the ability to build it came from. He gave it to us. And once a man truly believes that, his grip on everything starts to loosen.
You might be able to say, “I built this.” But as a son of the Father, you can never honestly say, “I built it by myself.”
Before your effort, there was His gift. Before your discipline, His provision. Before your opportunity, His sovereignty. Before anything landed in your hands, it was already in His.
There Is No Self-Made Man
Our culture loves the self-made man. And there's something admirable in discipline, perseverance, courage, and hard work. Scripture celebrates those too.
There's just one problem with the self-made man. He doesn't exist.
Look at David. He started as an overlooked shepherd boy and became a warrior, a leader, a king. Courage, leadership, music, influence - he had all of it. But near the end of his life, David knew exactly where every bit of it had come from. As Israel gave generously toward the temple, he prayed:
Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.
Then he said something even more remarkable:
Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.
Everything comes from You, Father. David had spent a lifetime building. Armies. A kingdom. A capital city. A legacy. Yet when he looked back over all of it, he saw the fingerprints of the Father. It had all come from Him.
From Ownership to Stewardship
There's an enormous freedom in starting to see your life this way. Pride becomes gratitude. Ownership becomes stewardship. Your hands begin to open.
If our abilities came from the Father, they've been entrusted to us. Our resources, our opportunities, our relationships and influence, all of it entrusted, not owned. And suddenly the question changes. Instead of asking what we can build with what we have, we start asking something better. Father, what do You want me to do with what You've placed in my hands?
That's stewardship. Everything we accomplish with our hands begins with something the Father first placed in them.
So work hard. Build something worthwhile. Take the risk. Develop the gifts He gave you. Lead well, provide for your family, create, give, serve, invest, finish the work in front of you. Just never forget whose hands it all came from.
Nothing. Not One Thing.
Paul's question leaves any man very little room to boast.
What do you have that you did not
receive?
Look around your life today. Your family. Your abilities. Your career. Your resources. Your influence. Your next breath. What do you have that you didn't receive? Nothing. Not one thing.
And maybe when we finally see that, the right response isn't guilt over what we’ve accomplished. It's gratitude. It's surrender. It's worship.
Reflection & Action
Reflection: Where have I been quietly saying “my power, my hands”? What's the one achievement I'd have the hardest time calling a gift?
Action: This week, keep attentive to how many times you use the words: I. My. Me. Mine. A steward rarely uses those words.
Father, everything in my hands came first from Yours. Teach me to hold all things the way a steward does, with open hands. Show me how You want me to use it for Your glory. Amen.
-Will
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