Life is often difficult and frustrating. Struggles and brokenness tug on our tenacity to keep on keeping on. These realities at times seem to collide with biblical blessings like “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Rom. 15:13). We know this is what we are called to believe and do, but where do we find genuine deep gratitude, joy, and peace in the face of daily struggles?
Peter writes to beleaguered believers to mitigate their misery by keeping the big picture in front of them. Uprooted and uncared for, the followers of Jesus needed fresh understanding and assurance of their belonging and hope. Our confident expectation of this satisfaction is anchored in – not mere platitudes or positive ponderings – but the historical reality of Jesus walking out of the grave (1 Peter 1:3-9).
I will introduce the second outlook with an illustration. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when terrorists flew airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon in Washington D.C., there were many interviews of those who had lost loved ones on those doomed flights. In one interview on a major network morning show, the host was questioning the parents of an 11-year-old who was on the ill-fated flight with her whole class of fifth graders. The host asked the parents what it felt like to lose a child – it must be unimaginably difficult!? I will never forget their answer. “We are thankful to God for the eleven years he entrusted her to us.”
Understanding life as a stewardship is understanding that you do not own what you have. If you think what you have is yours, then you will strive to control it (or them), and you will feel that the protection of those things (or people) is ultimately up to you. But that is not the case. A steward is not an owner, but an administrator of that which belongs to another for the purposes determined by the owner. It is important to remember that the most important things in life are not things. What our Father in his steadfast love has entrusted to us, we hold with open hands entrusting them back to his purpose and protection.
What is yours most personally is your own identity and sense of purpose. From the perspective of stewardship, you did not determine your identity or purpose. That being true, you do not have to strive to protect and maintain them – they are under the Owner’s care as one who is “chosen and beloved” (Col. 3:12); “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). In his most difficult moments Jesus acknowledged that he was in his Father’s care, so he entrusted himself into his Father’s hands of steadfast love; “when he suffered…he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).
I know whom I have believed,
and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day
what has been entrusted to me.
2 Timothy 1:12
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