Thoughts on Stewardship

Thoughts on Stewardship

Recently I was talking with one of my mentees, and we were discussing his decision-making process with regard to higher education. I was encouraging him to think longer-term, as I often do with my mentees, and to consider what he was really hoping to do with his life and career.

One of the Bible verses which has influenced me greatly in this regard is Luke 12:48. From a young age, I have recognized that I am blessed to be in my circumstances, and that not many in today’s world have the privilege to enjoy what I do. And along with that privilege, I also feel a responsibility to do something with it. Noblesse oblige, one might say. The verse says it better, I think; from everyone who have been given much, much will be demanded.

Perspective on Stewardship

Perhaps my view is somewhat limited, but I think I consume much the same media as the average first-world citizen. And in this media I see a few messages which are worrying - mostly because they are effective in influencing those who are still forming their own world view.

One of these messages is the idea that we deserve better. Now, I wish everyone did get better, but I take issue with the idea that everyone deserves better. This implies that everyone has unassailable rights, and that these rights must be accorded them no matter the circumstance. The right to free speech, for example, or the right to love.

I think rights come with responsibilities, and perhaps responsibilities that privileged individuals may forget. The right to free speech, for example, comes with the responsibilities of being held accountable for what you say. It is no use claiming the right of free speech if you use it only to lie and cheat and steal.

In much the same way I think all other rights come with responsibilities; some more, and some less.

But I think we must not stop here. This is not yet stewardship. Stewardship is not merely that we ought to fulfill a set of responsibilities for every right we may claim. Stewardship is that we are entrusted with that which we did not earn, and must account for in the future.

Fatherhood is Stewardship

In this sense, Fatherhood is a right. It is my right as a guardian of my daughter to make decisions for her. It is my right to decide her nationality, her name, her passport photo, with or without her consent.

With it, it is my responsibility to protect and provide for her until she is able to do so for herself.

But more than that, I am a steward of this gift of life given to my wife and I. I have been entrusted a life - something I did not and could never have earned - and I must account for her in the future to the one who entrusted her to me.

This defines my Fatherhood. I am not merely responsible, I am accountable. I am not merely an authority, I am a steward. My child is not mine to own, but mine to nurture.