A while back, my mom let me borrow her purple water bottle. I used it so much I started to forget it was hers to begin with.
Sometimes I fail to remember that the “purple water bottles” God lets me borrow are His, too.
During my first year in the counseling program at my seminary, I was so very aware grad school was a gift from God. I knew He was loaning me the knowledge, time, and resources. I was believing and remembering He is all-wise and knows everything about counseling, my program, where He’s calling me. I found myself holding loosely to grad school. I wasn’t anxious about going to class, studying for exams, writing research papers, applying for internships, or telling people I had no idea where I’d be after graduation.
As I entered my second year of the program, however, a strange thing happened. I became clingy, grabby, and uptight. I started to act entitled – as if my hard work the first year had somehow earned me the gift.
About halfway through my second year of grad school, I remember looking down at my mom’s purple water bottle in class and thinking to myself, “Oh yeah, I need to give that back to her!” The irony was not lost on me. I was smack dab in the middle of the place I knew I had been idolizing. It finally dawned on me: I’d forgotten God’s grace brought me to this second year and God’s grace alone would sustain me to the final year. God was still the owner; I was still the steward. There, I finally gave back to God what was His.
God calls us to be faithful stewards with what He’s given us. When we are, we will begin to notice an even stranger thing happens – a supernatural thing, even. The Holy Spirit bears peace, patience, joy, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5). He opens our hands to the things and people in our lives when we recognize they aren’t ours. He makes us more comfortable in Him and who He is than the gifts He provides. He stirs our hearts towards trust, surrender, peace.
Just think about the witness we are to the world when we live like owners of nothing and stewards of everything: We’re not grasping unto things or people to earn our identity. We aren’t fighting for a place at the table. We’re not knocking others down to get to where we think God has us going. We’re content with much or less, plenty or well-fed (Philippians 4) because we consider all else garbage compared to knowing Christ (Philippians 3). When we live this way, we testify to the truth that our Father is an all-powerful, loving provider.
It’s easy to forget that our loved ones, jobs, finances, education, material possessions, heck – even our own bodies, minds, emotions, and souls are His. But we do. They’re great gifts but make terrible gods.
After being convicted of making grad school an idol, things really did change. I noticed a shift in my heart and mind to be more open-handed. I spent the next year and a half of grad school using water bottles as tangible reminders of God’s ownership and my stewardship with every sip. God, this is yours. Everything belongs to you. I’m giving back to you what is yours.
So the next time we find ourselves tense, irritable, grabby, or clingy let’s ask ourselves: Is this a purple water bottle? Is this an idol? And if it is, I invite you to try the life-changing confessional practice of “spiritual breathing” that I practiced in class with that purple water bottle. Inhale a slow, deep breath, confessing to God you’ve clung to a gift and made it a god (this is yours). Exhale, giving back to the Owner of all what is His (I surrender). Now, meditate on this word of encouragement from Philippians 2:5-11 (emphasis added):
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Pray with me:
Jesus, thank you for emptying yourself and dying on the cross. You had every right to grasp and every reason to lift yourself up above others during your time on earth. But instead, you gave of yourself for us. We bow before you, in awe of this incomprehensible grace. Father, thank you for being the owner of all things. How great are you! All we have and all we are is yours. Spirit, help our community at All The More to walk in humility, confession, and repentance of our idols knowing that only you are worthy of our worship. Remind us that we are mere stewards. In the name above every name, amen.