And [Jesus] told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21
“My family takes pride in our farm, our patch of paradise. We love it; we own it; it’s ours. Well, sort of. Several years ago, I was walking through a field when suddenly I felt this prompting, what I would call a nudge from the Holy Spirit, to stop and look around.
That’s when I heard it, this voice within saying “Rachel, your family didn’t own this property 200 years ago, and your family will not own this property 200 years from now. You don’t own it, you are just the stewards of this property.”
That nudge of the Holy Spirit shook me to the core. No longer can I hold on to my family farm with a tight fist declaring, “It’s mine.” The nudge changed my perspective and helped me recognize I needed to be a bit more openhanded with what God has placed in my care.
We humans are but the temporary stewards of “our stuff.” When we deploy an open hand, we recognize that no matter how big the tower we build, the wealth we gain, or the stuff we hoard, it’s ours for such a brief moment in time…
We must continually calculate the cost to determine whether we “need” that stuff, which we can never own but only hold for a time. Do you need to build or buy a bigger tower — or house, car, boat, mower, latest smartphone? If we live with an open hand, we recogize bigger isn’t better; debt isn’t helpful; and what’s “ours” isn’t “ours” for long. We are temporary tower builders.”
Rachel Billups in Saving Grace: Hope-Filled Devotions Along the Way to Financial Well-Being (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020) 57-58.
I grew up in Sheffield Village, west of Cleveland, Ohio. The land my family owned there has long been sold. A remnant of our time there is a street named Hoag Drive. But that’s it. We were temporary stewards of that property. That’s a powerful, but impactful adjective. The truth is that we are temporary stewards of all property.
How does this idea that your stewardship is “temporary” impact you? Do you feel convicted to convert earthly resources to heavenly treasures? Does it inspire you to teach your children and/or grandchildren with intentionality? Sit with the Holy Spirit and obey whatever nudge you feel related to openhanded living.