StewardLife Lesson 42

STORY

"Just tell me the rules," Geraldine cried out. "Otherwise, how am I supposed to know who I can go to with my purchase order?"

Geraldine had been given her first big assignment at work. She was asked to plan the semi-annual training meeting for office staff. How this event turned out could have a significant impact on her annual review, a possible promotion and a big raise. But soon she realized that the financial strings were being pulled by other people in the office. She had been given the responsibility, but was not given enough spending authority to engage the hotel meeting space or the equipment they would need.

INSIGHT OUT

You can create your own ending to the story, but you will also realize that Geraldine's need is universal. Children in school need to know how to line up in the hall and the rules for catching the school bus. Workers need to know about lunch breaks and vacation days and pay policies. Supervisors need to know personnel policies or union rules. Then there are just the general "rules for life." According to our human nature it is so much easier to function by "The Rules." And in society today it seems that every time something tragic or frustrating happens, someone says "We ought to have a law about that." As humans we prefer to function by the Law. But the greatest blessing God ever gave was the Gospel. When Christ fulfilled the Law for us on the cross, we were freed to serve God voluntarily, of "our own free will."

Freedom is a precious blessing of God. As we consider that blessing, we recognize how much more it means to a Christian--one who lives the StewardLife. Stewards freely respond to God for His action in freeing us--not just socially or physically-- but spiritually. And spiritual bondage is more eternally destructive than physical bondage.

Freedom in Christ is a precious gift of God that can be harder to deal with in our human nature than if God just set out the rules--which He did. Recreated as a new person in Christ your spiritual nature is turned on, and you are given the capacity to deal with your new-found freedom in Christ. Manage it!