Nomad 365 Club: Stewardship
Responsibility & Maximizing What You Have
“You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”
— Matthew 25:23
This may honestly be the one month out of the whole Nomad 365 that I've been most eager to discuss with you. It's a topic I've intentionally begun to focus on in my daily decisions, and it has been changing my life for the better. That topic is stewardship.
Stewardship is the act of carefully and responsibly managing what has been entrusted to you: managing it well, and leaving it in better condition than when it was given. If you've been entrusted with a plant, a good steward takes care of that plant and helps it grow and thrive. If you've been entrusted with a pet, a good steward makes sure that pet is fed and kept safe, shows it love, and even takes pride in being its caregiver. If you've been entrusted with a job, a good steward shows up on time and takes care of the responsibilities and tasks expected of the role. They become such a beneficial asset that the business is better with them in it, and even if they stepped down, it would be left in better condition than when they started.
I make it a daily posture now to take pride in the life I have the blessing to steward. But I wasn't always a good steward. When I was a teenager, fresh with a driver's license, my parents gifted me a beautiful black Monte Carlo. I planned to deck that car out. I told myself I'd work my part-time job and save enough money to get some tints on the windows and chrome rims on the tires. Within ten days of being handed the keys, though, I was driving carelessly, messing with the radio and not paying attention to the road, and I totaled it. Worse, within another year my family chipped in to get me a second car. Before I even graduated high school, I drove home later than I should have one night, dozed off at the wheel, and got into the worst car crash of my life. Thankfully, by the grace of God, I walked away from the wreckage. But I clearly did not steward these blessings well.
I didn't truly earn those precious items, and I took them for granted. I wasn't as careful or as vigilant as I could have been, and I was outright disrespectful to my family by not honoring what was given to me. That wasn't the last time I've dropped the ball on managing something. But one thing I've learned through my trials and missteps is that the things I don't steward well, I will lose. Worse, they may be ripped away from me in not-so-pleasant ways.
There's a famous story called the Parable of the Talents, in which a wealthy master preparing to go away on a long trip entrusts three of his servants with talents to steward. He gives one servant five talents, another two, and the last one. A talent in that time in history was a significant weight of silver or gold, enough that a single talent could amount to years' worth of income. This was no small gift.
After a long while, the master returns to account for what he gave. The servant who received five talents doubled them to ten. The servant who received two doubled his to four. Both clearly put in the effort to steward what they were given, and the master was very pleased. He told each of them, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”
The third servant, however, out of fear, buried his one talent in the ground. When it was time to be accounted for, he presented the same talent, now most likely dulled and worn, with nothing to show for it. The master rebuked him as wicked and lazy, took the talent away, gave it to the servant with ten, and cast the third servant out into the darkness.
This is a cautionary parable spotlighting just how vital it is to put our own talents to use in this life. What skills, abilities, influence, resources, relationships, gifts, and capabilities do you have? Are you cultivating what's been planted in your life, or neglecting it? Are you expanding or shrinking what's been trusted to you as your personal domain? And another question to consider: rather than managing your own talents to the fullest, are you spending more of your energy comparing them to someone else's? Each servant was given a different amount, and how much one had over another didn't matter. Each was given more than enough to steward. It was their job to put it to good use.
This month, we're going to lock in on the talents you've been entrusted to put to work. No comparisons or excuses will be accepted.
“ Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.”
So if you've lost track of your field of diamonds, we're going to dig them up, wipe them off, and figure out the best next step to stewarding what is already within you. Because if you're faithful with a few things, it's only natural that you will be put in charge of many things.