Stewardship: The endless flow of need and supply

The question, a common one, loomed in the air. "If God is love, how can he allow suffering, hunger, injustice and disease. " It's an honest question and comes from a deep place. A place of doubt and longing. It comes from a place inside all of us that wants to make sense of things. It is a question that Christians are sometimes afraid to ask, out of fear that there is no answer and that it may cause doubt.

But if there is one thing that I have learned, God is bigger than my doubt. This may make little sense but I find that often I find God in the searching and not always in the answers. That is to say that our words, our descriptions of God, fail to encapsulate Him and therefore provide only a hint at understanding him. But in the search I find comfort. In the search I find a restless hope and comfort.

I have become convinced that the basis of life is love. Not just love but unconditional love. This is the very nature of God and of Grace. Unconditional love, however is at its best when there are barriers to overcome.

Which brings me to stewardship. The definition of Stewardship being, the proper use and accounting of what has been entrusted to you. It should conjure the image of a manager or a person that has been put in charge of anothers' property. Stewardship, in view of the way of Jesus, would start with an understanding that everything you have is not yours but what you have been entrusted with by God. In our individualistic culture, we have often viewed this, even in our churches as, am I being ethical in my finances, am I planning for my future, am I wasting money, do I give my tithe check every month to the church. It is a very self centered view of life and of God's working in the world. It is a view that says what is God doing in me and with this world immediately around me. Which is good, But maybe there is something more. Maybe there is something bigger.

Maybe the concept of stewardship addresses bigger, deeper and more global questions. Maybe it speaks to the nature of God. Maybe if we look at it from a slightly different perspective we can see past our doubt to the compassion and unconditional love of God and his desire for justice in all of creation. If you look though the Biblical narrative God consistently works through humanity to accomplish his will. It is, in itself an act of compassion and unconditional love to trust us with this task.

If we would get outside ourselves for a moment and look at the world from a global perspective, we might get a glimpse of the world the way God sees it. I may be wrong, but the way I see it there is this beautiful flow to life. There is this endless ebb and flow of need and supply. There are those that have none, but there are also those that have plenty. There are those that are suffering injustice, but there are those that bask in freedom. There are those that have been awakened to the Gospel and there are those that have never heard the good news of Jesus and his freedom and Grace.

So the original question might be the wrong question. Maybe we should not be asking, how could God allow these things. Maybe the proper question is, why am I not doing anything about these things. I am not wealthy by western standards, but I have much. I have a job, clothing to wear, food to eat, clean water to drink and home to live in. I live in a country were I have the freedom and the ability to do and become anything that I desire. I am educated, have friends and a loving family, And I KNOW JESUS!! I have been given an awareness of God, the creator of all things and I have been given the good news that Jesus has died to restore me and is using me to restore the rest of creation. I have been given much! God wants to restore the world. He wants to use us in that process. The kingdom of heaven is here and available to all.

Stewardship...