Periodically, I clear my calendar and spend a day in reflection.  These days are critical, as they help me maintain my perspective in an often-demanding life schedule.  Busyness is chronic in America.  We live by our iPhones, our traffic reports, and our double tall lattes.  Even I (an empty nester with a four-minute commute) find myself caught in the whirlwind of daily calendar demands.

Busyness is a fact of our lives, and it clouds our vision like little else.  Atlanta is often inundated with heavy rains…day after day after day.  After these rainy periods, I am amazed at how much easier I breath when the sun comes out.  I can finally look beyond the path from my car door to the nearest dry spot I can find.  Busyness is like that dreary, continuous rain.  It clouds our ability to look beyond the muddy path to the next calendared event.

The Bible makes it clear that we ARE stewards.  We don’t become stewards when we pass a certain dollar amount in net worth; rather, by being God’s children, we are His stewards on Earth.  Over what are you a steward? Is it a family, a job, a time of waiting, a budget, an illness, a flowerbed, a best friend, a dinner table, etc.?

Without identifying our stewardship responsibilities, we will never be able to view our decisions and our lives as a stewardship process.  Would you take the time, over the next few days or weeks, to schedule some solitude?  In your time alone, ponder your position as a steward and make a list of the things that God has entrusted to you.

What financial resources has He given you?  What relational resources has He given you?  What temporal resources has He given you?  What challenges has He given you?

Once you identify the “talents” – both the abundance and the lack – you will see life differently.  The busyness will still be busy, but inside of it, you will be able to look around to see the bigger picture.  Your life’s resources will look different when viewed in light of the One who gave them to you.  Decisions will look different to you.  When I find time to be alone and reflect on the resources God has given, my view broadens and my decisions are different.

I’d like to share a quote from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Way of the Heart, (p 21 – 22) which says, “There is seldom a period in which we do not know what to do, and we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing. We simply go along with the many “musts” and “oughts” that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord.”

Take time to take stock, and then take joy in being a steward of our Master’s resources.