Stewardship: Meeting Your Family's Material Needs

What could be better than a life of full-time play? I'll tell you what -- a good, hard life of productive work! What a joy it was to discover the occasional retiree who developed his life-long hobby into creative work. Claud Ruch was one of these. Retired from Field Enterprises, he found plenty of time for watercolor painting. Not only that, he started teaching art classes. Along with dedicated work for Christ in his church, he made a positive contribution -- working hard in his retirement. How different from Bill, who soon died from the boredom of golf and double martinis.

I have a friend in his early fifties. He is the heir to one of the nation's large fortunes. He draws on a trust account which provides all the money he needs to support his family in a luxurious lifestyle. Talk about restlessness. He wants to work but he doesn't have to. So he dabbles at this job and that. Occasionally, he senses some accomplishment. However, freed from the necessity of having to get along with people just to put bread on the table, he has developed a pattern of insulting his business associates, walking away when the going gets tough.

Are you yearning for retirement? Are you jealous of that friend who doesn't have to work? The Bible clearly teaches that work is a God-given responsibility and privilege. The fall of Adam and Eve was followed by the curse of God, which said, "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:19). Romans 12:11 urges the Christian not to be slothful in business. You are I are fulfilled in our work. Yet we try to take so many shortcuts. Your job is both your curse and your blessing. It's hard. Yet there are the God-given rewards. You are called to help your partners. Together you have the responsibility to provide for yourself and your family. You are to enable each other.

Are you working hard? You should be, with a sense of vocation. God has called you to good, hard labor.

Question Two: What are your priorities?

One of the most rewarding pastoral experiences is to observe men and women sincerely endeavoring to sort out competing priorities in lifestyles. How exciting it is to discover someone in mid-career who is willing to admit that his life is out of kilter -- who is willing to reorganize, so that first things will be first.

Even as the Bible stresses the importance of good, hard work, it also calls you to periodically reanalyze your priorities.

United States Senate Chaplain Richard C. Halverson, who for many years pastored the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Washington, was the first to confront me with this revolutionary concept. It states that, for the Christian, first comes your commitment to Jesus Christ; second, to your marriage partner; third, to your children; and fourth, to your work.