Endless Variation, Endless Supply

We’ve too often misinterpreted the concept of being good stewards.  If you’re like me, when I hear those words I typically jump right to the conclusion that it means to be cautious….careful…conservative.  I think of the economy and return, and ask if this is a good investment.  (Or maybe that is just fear for my own well-being, or a thinly veiled excuse to be selfish.) But that doesn’t seem in any way to be how God thinks. 

Maybe He is wondering how many of us will take hold of this spectacular good news and the resources we have at hand and then spread them out liberally like the sower did with his seed.  He broadcast it on all kinds of soil, not concerned with efficiency, but only seeing how much there was to give and realizing how sad it would be to squander it, to keep it to a few who were “good enough,” or worse yet, to hoard it for ourselves.  The sower wanted the seed to go everywhere.

I think that the wedding at Cana, the widow’s oil in 2 Kings 4, the feeding of 5000 (and of 4000 on another occasion), the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, and most especially a Savior giving everything He had on a Roman cross all give us a pretty good idea that what is with us is to be used, and what He has available will never run out.  Yet He didn’t insist that anyone take His gift.  He knew that the poor and hungry, regardless of their station in life, would receive it.

We don’t have to be picky about with whom we share the best stuff, for the Kingdom is known for generosity and supply.  God’s choice to bestow on us free will was His riskiest move, and one He obviously thought was totally worth taking for the chance that we would embrace the promise and enter the realm of generosity with Him to be distributors of what He has for the world He loves.

Nothing gives off the aroma of His generosity better than the events of this precious Passion week.  I am stunned by what He chose when the risk seemed so huge, the objects of His affection so ungrateful, so uninterested that Heaven’s storehouse were now permanently accessible.  Consider what you can take with you today to give away—the variations are endless and He will use your unique ways to reach dry places.  Fill your pockets with possibilities this morning, then listen for the whisper of the Spirit as you go, giving with a glad heart.