Taking Stewardship, I mean, Ownership of Your Life

In order to be a success, we must take ownership of our lives.

And right there, at the word ownership, many of you stumbled. You have been taught from the pulpit every Sunday since you were a child that you are to be a steward, NOT an owner. All of your talents, all of your material goods, all of your past, present and future - it all belongs to God. You are only a steward.

I have been taught the same thing. And, like many of you, I have taken my talent and buried it in the earth. Why? Simply because it isn't mine. It belongs to someone else. And, truth be told, I don't want to be responsible for stuff that belongs to someone else. What's in it for me?

When we take away ownership, we take away responsibility.

The Lord Jesus taught this truth in John 10, "But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." Jesus takes responsibility for the sheep because he OWNS them!

The welfare department also knows this truth. When people don't OWN something, they don't take care of it. They ignore it, or they misuse it, or they abuse it. They don't wash it, paint it, weed it or fix it. Why should they? It's not theirs.

When your life is not your own, you don't take ownership of it!

Now, it is true that everything is God's. And it is true that we are stewards of all that God has given us. But we are also OWNERS.

Your life is yours! Own it! Grow it, feed it, wash it, or paint it. Enlarge it. Make it successful.

Think about this: Taking ownership of your life, is the very best way to be a steward of what God has given you.

p.s. My wife was just now telling me that as Europe was coming out of the Dark Ages and entering into the Renaissance, there was a resurgence in personal independence. These great Renaissance men, like Leonardo da Vinci, believed that they were stewards of the lives that God had given them, and that they were also co-creating themselves with God. They were both owners and stewards of their lives!


Leave me a comment, I'd like to hear what your thoughts are.