StewardLife Lesson 8
STORY:
One day late in July 1957 my mother didn't know what the future would bring, except that we would need to eat in the Fall. That's why she was so busy in the hot kitchen. Pots of boiling water were on the stove, steam rising into the already hot and humid July air. She periodically changed the racks of glass jars in the boiling water. They were being sterilized.
In the pressure cooker, vegetables were being cooked. In another pot, sliced peaches were bubbling in sweet sugar sauce.
Mom moved with lightning speed. She really had the kitchen organized so all these things could be going on at once. And down in the basement fruit cellar, there was the evidence that she had done this in June, too: jars of preserved whole cherries, strawberry jam and green beans.
For us kids, seeing this process of preserving food was comforting. It was a witness that mom had faith in the future. She was putting something away for later use. The preserved fruits and vegetables were a promise that the future would come and that we would all be part of it together.
In 1989 some plumbing work had to be done in mom's basement, so I went over to her house to lend a hand. We discovered that we had to move some jars of preserves to do some of the work around the shelves. Imagine my surprise when I saw the labels on the jars—July 1957!
How could these preserves have lasted 32 years? Mom reminded me that 1957 was the year the first big supermarket came to town. By fall, she was buying commercially- canned food. She had just forgotten about the preserves down here and never got around to using them or, after many years, tossing them out. Yet here they stood—32 years old and still perfectly preserved.
Mom was not planning in July 1957 that her preserves would last for 32 years. But her home canning was a witness to us of her faith in the future. It just turned out to be a future beyond what she ever imagined on that hot July day in 1957! Making a commitment as a trustee of what God asks you to manage is a witness to the promise of a future. It demonstrates faith that the Lord, who is part of your life, will never fail to take care of you. Feel comfortable making commitments for the future, because your future is in God's hands.
STORY:
All day long Barry sits at the controls of the crusher. He picks up a car from the lot, drops it in the machine, pushes the button and after a few minutes of grinding and popping, lifts out a block of steel that used to be a car. I know his job is more than routine for Barry. “I often wonder,” he said to me once, “if when this car was new its owner ever imagined this day? And, as a Christian, I wonder how many miles that car went in the service of the Lord during its lifetime. And I wonder one more thing—do undertakers ask the same kinds of questions?”
EXERCISE:
As you drive your car down one of life's real highways this week watch for road construction signs. In some areas of the country it is unavoidable--it seems like everything is perpetually under construction!
How can you look with spiritual eyes at road construction? Consider how God is constantly reconstructing your life--every Sunday--every time you read Scripture. Your continual sin means a continual need for forgiveness on God's part. How untiring, how patient He is!
Every time you see a construction sign or site today, give thanks that you are also a person who is, by God's grace, continuously “under construction.”
STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLES--PRINCIPLE SEVEN
God's stewards live with an awareness of the present and future--of time and eternity. God's stewards live intentionally in the light of the Lord’s eternal purpose while being firmly committed to His rule in the here and now. See Matthew 6:19-21; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Philippians 3:12-14, 20; 2 Peter 3:11-12a; Revelation14:13. What stewards decide to do or leave undone has eternal consequences. They pursue good planning for the present and future, and rejoice in knowing that what they do has lasting benefits. Christian stewards extend God’s kingdom here and now, as well as the future.
