To Manage

   I still clearly remember my eighteenth birthday when, as my main gift, I was entrusted to switch main vehicles to a car instead of a van. As an eighteen year old male, this was a very exciting endeavor, as one can imagine. Seeing people drive past me so fast in the van, getting impatient because it took a while to take off, made me want to drive a faster vehicle.
   The car had power and was of much less weight than the van and consequently went much faster. And as all humans, including Jesus, were tempted, so was I. The thought of "now I can beat a lot more people on the road if I see what this car can do" popped into my head. Now of course safety was a concern, but the main reason why that thought was never carried out is because of the idea of stewardship. I own not that car, I am only entrusted to manage it well, in the same manager the owner would. That means using wisdom to take car of it, not see what all it can do.
   Everything on this Earth is God's. A common American misconception is that we own things. No... it is the Lord's and we are called to manage things with proper stewardship! To manage the Earth, essentially. Be careful how you treat things, including nature and this world, because EVERYTHING is the Lord's!