But that is only part of the truth. The other part of the truth is: Everything we have belongs to us, and we are responsible for its use or abuse. The statements seem to contradict each other, but both are equally true—everything belongs to God, and everything belongs to us. We need not be surprised at such tension, since life is full of such apparent contradictions.
In this regard, there are two fallacies among thinking people. The first is when we think that everything belongs to God, and so we leave everything to God. Often this becomes an excuse for not doing anything. It leads to false modesty and inertia. The second is when we think that everything belongs to us, and we can live our lives without God. This leads to presumption and pride.
Let's look again at the example of Moses, an intriguing study in these two extremes.31 When Moses was younger, he was full of confidence in himself. Forty years later, when he was older, he had lost all confidence in himself. Moses Junior acted as if everything depended on him. Moses Senior acted as if nothing depended on him. One was presumptuous, the other was cynical.
Moses Junior said, "I can do it!" Moses Senior said, "Who am I?" How did God deal with Moses? He first allowed Moses Junior to fail in his attempt to deliver his people. Then he took Moses Junior out into the desert, and left him there for 40 years. When Moses Junior became Moses Senior, when he felt most inadequate and worthless, God called him again to return and finish what he started.
When Moses took ownership of his life in Egypt and tried to do something with it, he failed, and failed miserably. When Moses was about to throw away his life in the wilderness, God asked him to take ownership of it and do something with it.
God reminded Moses that life is a stewardship. When God asked Moses what he held in his hand, it was an object lesson to Moses that the staff in his hand belonged to him; it belonged also to God. When God asked Moses to put his hand into his cloak, it was a reminder to Moses that the hand belonged to him; it belonged also to God.
What we hold in our hands belong to us—it belongs also to God. In fact, the very hands with which we hold what we have belong to God, though they are a part of our body and belong to us.
When we look at the life of Moses—from the moment of his birth to this point of his life when God was talking with him about ownership—we see a remarkable story of stewardship. There is no doubt that Moses' life belonged to God. Moses should have died when he was born. There was a decree by the Pharaoh of Egypt that all male children born should be put to death. But Moses' mother hid him, put him in a basket, and placed it in the river, to be picked up by the Pharaoh's daughter.
Thus, Moses became the adopted son of the princess and grew up as one of the princes of Egypt. No doubt, he was schooled in the learning of that great civilisation, rubbing shoulders with royalty, the wealthy and the powerful. When we read later of Moses returning to Egypt and moving freely in and out of the Pharaoh's palace, we understand why he had such access. He was visiting familiar places and old friends.
God had prepared him from birth, and had placed him in the palace—because that was where he would fight the most significant battles of his life. God not only put Moses in the palace, he also put him in the desert. There he spent 40 years looking after sheep. Definitely, not a glamorous position, unlike the prince he was in Egypt. In fact, it was a demotion, but a necessary one. Moses needed to know the desert. He needed to know about sheep. He needed to know about shepherding sheep in the desert. His life task involved taking two million people across the desert to the Promised Land.
Now we understand why God drove him away to the desert. Now we understand why God raised him up in the palace. Moses' life was not his. God had prepared him all along for what God would call him to do. Our God is a God of economy. Nothing he does is wasted. Everything he does has a purpose.
Krit was a civil engineer before he became a pastor. He worked for many years as an engineer with the government before God called him to be a pastor. He found the pastoral ministry so challenging yet so rewarding that he wondered why he had not become a pastor earlier. At one point, he felt that all the training he went through as a civil engineer was wasted. All the years he worked as an engineer could have been better spent serving God as a pastor.
Then the church embarked on an ambitious plan to build a facility to house a retreat centre as well as a chapel. The small congregation of some 200 members raised a million dollars and bought 10 acres of land. However, Christianity was a minority faith in his country, and permission to build churches is often not given. But after five years of painstaking negotiations, the church got the permission. The church developed the property, a dream come true for the pastor and his people.
It was when the pastor was dealing with officials in the government over building permission, when he was reviewing building plans with the architect, when he had to handle delicate negotiations—that he realised why God made him a civil engineer before he became a pastor. Everything he had learned as an engineer was put to good use in this situation. Nothing was wasted. Our God is a God of economy.
Our God is also a God of timing. Why did Moses fail the first time when he tried to be the deliverer of his people? Because it was not time. He was not ready. He had been prepared, but not fully prepared. He had been to school, but he had not yet graduated.
Life is a stewardship. God prepares us for what he calls us to do. He prepares carefully. Nothing he does ever goes to waste. Everything has a purpose. Everything also has a timing, God's timing.
One of the best stories I know about God's timing is the story of Haggai Institute on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The dream to plant a training centre in the Mid-Pacific went through years of frustrating deadends, roadblocks and detours.
It started on another island, Oahu, in the mid-1980s. A piece of property was bought. But when the land was cleared, archaeological artefacts were found on it. Hawaiian laws do not allow disturbance of such ancient landmarks. Three years of negotiations for building permission followed. They came to a deadend. The property had to be abandoned.
Then another property was acquired on Maui. Careful research ensured it was not an archaeological site. But problems arose over the water permit. The area had been affected by drought and neighbouring residents objected to the building of a training centre next to them. Another three years of negotiations followed. Patience was sorely tested.
Some people said, "The Lord must be telling us that it is not his will. We should go somewhere else." Haggai Institute could not wait for a centre to be built. It was decided that a hotel be used to conduct its training seminars. One year later, the hotel went bankrupt and had to close down! It seemed that everywhere we went, we faced a deadend.
However, now on hindsight, we know why God closed all the doors. By his gracious provision, we bought over the hotel which is now the Mid-Pacific Centre of the Institute—and for half of its selling price! After years of fervent prayers, painstaking work and tested patience, we finally found our home. God's time had come.
Life is a stewardship. Our God is a God of economy. Nothing that he puts in our life is wasted—everything has a purpose. Our God is also a God of timing. Everything will be done according to his time, not ours. We make our plans, but they work out according to his schedule, not ours.
We are back to the issue of ownership. Whose life is it that we are living? From the example of Moses, we know that his life belonged to God. God carefully prepared him from birth, educated him in Egypt, trained him in the Sinai Desert. Then God sent him back home to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from slavery, and take them across the desert to the Promised Land. God saw everything ahead of time, and prepared Moses in every way.
We may not be called to a task as great as the deliverance of a people or the birth of a nation, but every one of us is called by God to something whether big or small. It need not be something spectacular, earth-shaking or history-making. But all of us are called to do something significant with our life.
It could be a helping another person know God better. It could be bringing meaning and joy to someone who has lost the will to live. It could be making the community a better place to live in. It could be bringing up our children to live with faith and courage in a harsh world. It could be touching the lives of people with love. It could be sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with a lost sinner.
Our life is not ours—just as Moses learned that the staff in his hand, and even his hand, were not his. Yet, in another sense, our life is ours. It is up to us to use it, misuse it or abuse it. Ultimately, we are responsible for the life God has given us.
Stewardship is often thought of in terms of time, talent and treasure. That is a helpful way of looking at what we have. But stewardship is first of all the stewardship of life. It is everything God gives us with the life he breathes into us.
Stewardship encompasses all the experiences that God has allowed us to go through. Stewardship covers all the knowledge that we have acquired. It also covers our body, our health, our family and loved ones. Stewardship extends to our personality, our gifts, skills and abilities. And of course, it includes our resources: our money, our influence, our expertise.
All these belong to God, but they have been given to us. So they belong to us. We can use them or to neglect them. The responsibility is ours. When we are tempted to claim credit and become arrogant, remember that our life belongs to the Lord. When we are inclined to disclaim responsibility and become careless, remember that our life is given to us and it belongs to us.
It could be that at a young age, Moses claimed too much for himself and failed. It could be that at an older age, Moses disclaimed too much when he said, "Who am I?" He almost missed the opportunity to do what God had prepared him to do.
We should not claim too much, and think that our life belongs to us. Remember the lady at the departure lounge who thought that the bag of cookies was hers? No, it did not belong to her. Nor should we disclaim too much, as if we have no part to play in the stewardship of our life. Remember the pastor who saw the lovely garden and remarked that it was the gardener and the Lord who put it together? No, the Lord provided the ground but it was the gardener who tilled it. God made the flowers but it was the gardener who planted them.
Our life belongs to God. Our life also belongs to us. What are you going to do with it? What is that in your hand? Use it.
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