What’s Controlling You?

Seminar participants raise The Lord's cellphones.

Stuff. We all have it, and it seems that there is no end to the amount that we accumulate. From flat panel giant screens to the latest GPS system for our car, there are countless items on our wish list as “must haves” that weren’t even on our radar screen a few years ago. Now, as we can justify the usefulness of such items, we ask, as we watch what the future holds , do we really need them?

It’s really no different here in Mexico. Case in point: I was doing holding a talk in the town of Chunchucmil. As I was nearing the place we were to hold the meeting, I reached for my cell phone to make a quick call to the pastor. However, in this small town near the Campeche/Yucatan border, there was no signal. Nevertheless, as I entered the church, I noticed that it seemed that everyone, including some kids, had cell phones. Behold, the power of advertising! The basic idea is this: you need a cell phone, even if you can’t use it where you live.

It all boils down to this question: our stuff–are we controlling it, or is it controlling us? I’ll be the first to admit my love for gadgets, but has this “technolust” boiled over to the point where we’ve scalded our reason? A family loses its house because it can’t pay the mortgage, but it owns two large screen TVs. Another can’t put food on the table, but owns three computers. What’s going on?

Our priorities are out of whack. For that reason, we’ve been excited to have been able to tour the district with our stewardship seminar. It is a two part series, based on the Howard Dayton book, Your Money Counts. It’s goal is to get its participants to understand that in order to achieve freedom to follow God’s will for our lives, we must recognize and submit to His plan for our finances.

Part of that plan is turning over everything that we have to it’s rightful owner, namely, God. It’s a liberating exercise in that it helps us to relinquish the worry that our stuff produces in us, and to depend upon God again for our needs. It also inoculates us from the power these things can have over us, helping us to recognize that proper stewardship, which leads to the freedom to follow God wherever He leads, may ask us to forgo certain items, like say recharging that cell phone instead of paying down debts.

The picture above is of our most recent event, where I asked the question following the exercise, “How many of us are carrying the Lord’s cell phone?” It’s encouraging to see the response as those who perhaps had previously lived “compartmentalized” began to recognize the role that God plays in every facet of our life.

How about you? In this economic crisis, have you taken time to reflect on your stewardship practices? If you have a minute, why don’t you drop us a line and share with us what you’ve discovered.