Hey Clan!
The title of this post is a little deceptive. It’s true, I mean to share about a lesson I learned on stewardship. But I didn’t learn it from an old buffet. God taught the lesson, and he used an old buffet as an illustration.
The Backstory You're Just Itching to Hear
Ok, you know there’s a talk on stewardship coming, and you know I’ve been in the process of preparing for a book launch. You may have also heard some rumors about a ranch sale and moving. So what does an old buffet have to do with any of that?
You knew it was coming. The inevitable backstory. I love backstories, and you’ll soon discover this when you read my novels.
Some think backstory is just an info dump. Not my backstories. If I do my job right, you’ll find they’re more like Marvel Shorts, giving you just a taste of what’s to come, with a little context to make the story more impactful.
So about that buffet…
A little over two years ago, my husband’s family ranch was listed on the market. My mother-in-law moved into a new home with her daughter’s family, and one of the items left behind on the ranch was this buffet. It’d been in the family for quite some time, and countless memories can be shared over this heirloom.
Since there was no place for it in their new home, she asked me if I wanted the buffet. Of course, the answer was, yes. But I had a dillema. I didn’t know where to put it, and I wasn’t even sure relocating it to our house was a great idea since we were facing the possibility of a move as well.
So the buffet sat in the big old ranch house for two years, collecting dust.
What Does That Have to Do with Stewardship?
Fast-forward (that’d be skip for you Gen. Z and Gen. Alpha whipper-snappers) to March of 2021.
I was sitting on day two of no sleep from anxiety built over an impending ranch sale, an unknown, upcoming book launch, a month of back pain, and various other spiritual and emotional stressors.
Burn out hit and it hit hard.
After three weeks of virtually no writing, and very limited mobility, let alone personal drive, I began wondering if there was a way to get out of the slump. The “Debbie-Downer” in me kept asking the same old question. What’s the use? Every time I try to move forward with a plan, something happens to knock me back. We’re stuck in this endless loop with no foreseeable way out. Plans are pointless.
Well, I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.
In the feverish frenzy that only assaults a mind racing in the middle of the night when all other sane individuals are sleeping, an epiphany struck.
Why don’t you go get that old buffet and put it in the kitchen?
Yeah, yeah! That makes perfect sense! Never mind that my back still hurts. Never mind that it’s just now healing enough for me to bend over and pick light things up.
Never mind that I have countless other to-dos on my list that are being neglected. Let’s go get that buffet!
I’ve never claimed to be sane.
So we fetched the buffet. My husband and I did all the heavy lifting. Darn near blew a knee again going up the stairs. My back is still cussing me out. But we did it, by golly!
After a good deal of vacuuming, washing and dusting, I stepped back to survey the finished product.
And snap a picture for Instagram… hey, I’m a Millenial.
Stewardship: The Conviction
A couple days later I sat on the couch with my family watching church online. The sermon was over a passage in James admonishing the rich man who planned ahead, but all his plans were for ruin.
I thought it ironic, and my mind automatically scattered to the winds, fixating on all my anxieties. All the things going wrong for lack of planning.
Can you see a common thread yet?
I began to wallow in the mire of it–not knowing what our future on the ranch would be. Feeling guilty for the lack of work I was putting into my blog, my book launch, my home, my family.
The term “good steward” blared from the TV speakers and instantly God seared “stewardship” on my brain.
Guilt reared its ugly head and I thought to myself, I haven’t been a good steward of the things given to me.
Then the Holy Spirit whispered. “But they’re not your things.”
Conviction set in. They aren’t my things. The house, it’s belongings, the land, my family… even my own body. None of it is mine.
The planning isn’t even mine to make. All of it belongs to God, and as such, He is the only one with the right to make the plans for its use.
A twinge tugged on my back. I looked to the corner of the buffet visible from the living room.
Though it really wasn’t mine, I was made a steward of that buffet. Despite thinking my space and tools needed for it were inadequate, it turned out that I had all that was required to care for it and put it to good use.
We placed the buffet on what I fondly refer to as the Cross Wall. A writing friend on Instagram said it perfectly when she commented on the picture…
…Beauty, Hope, and Restoration all in one glance.
God makes us stewards over many things in life. His designs and His plans are perfect, and He equips us with all we need to care for those things. But it’s easy to fall for the lies of the enemy regarding that same stewardship.
I’m not a good parent.
I’m failing at my job and I can’t pay my bills.
I don’t know enough to deal with the problems ahead of me.
I don’t have the physical ability to accomplish this task.
Pick your poison.
The truth is, all of those things may feel true, but they’re not God’s truth for your life.
He steps in and works through our weaknesses. He guides where there is no direction, He provides where there is lack, and He equips where there is no ability.
He has given everything we need to be stewards over what is bestowed upon us. When we’re faithful to care for that which is given, then we see magnificent results…
Beauty, Hope, Restoration.
And That's the Lesson!
As it turns out, today is Saint Patrick’s Day. Believe it or not, I didn’t set out to write a lesson on Saint Patrick’s Day. Yet, somehow, I always end up posting something personal on this day.
There are some significant parallels between this lesson and the story of Saint Patrick. If you’ve never heard it, or you need a good refresher, I invite you to read Saint Patrick’s Breastplate.
My prayer is that it encourages you to let Christ go before you in this day and those to come. Remembering that He is all you need, and He has commissioned you to be a steward over great things!
Melissa, this is simply beautiful! The hope, the comfort in not having to have the responsibility of ownership but the privilege of stewardship… I love how you write. And how awesome it even happened time-wise to post on St. Patrick’s Day! ☘️
Thank you, Pearl! Isn’t it cool how God works like that? There was another interesting thing I noticed while writing this that was more personal for me, but maybe not so personal for other readers. I think this is one of the first times posting where I felt more like I was telling a story rather than posting some nonfiction piece. Maybe that’s why it resonates more. It was very similar to when I write fiction. You know, only this time it was telling a story on myself rather than making one up. Lol!