Legacy | God Owns. I Manage.
Believe it or not, I was not always a pastor. I have lived many lives—coaching, professional sports, high school English teacher, marketing and sales, and Financial Services. When I look back over the last twenty-plus years, I certainly see God's hand in my journey, and I can even see now things that He was teaching me about Him, myself and others when I was working in so many divergent fields. But no occupation taught me more about God and my heart than when I—very briefly—worked in Financial Services at Waddell and Reed.
I had never been in Financial Services, and quite frankly, I have hated math all of my life, but to make ends meet, I was willing to do what I had to do, so I took the job. The training was intense, and studying for my series six or seven or whatever the heck the number license it was, was insane. Luckily, I never had to finish studying or even take that test because I got a call from FaithBridge Foster Care soon after I started. I moved on to work there until my residency with Perimeter Church began—I digress. Though I did not stay there long and did not want to be in Financial Services, as I said earlier, my time there—as with every other occupation—taught me something about God and myself.
Even though I was still in the training phase, my manager had already started putting me with clients and on accounts. I was pretty floored at the valuation of some of the accounts I was responsible for managing. And that management responsibility reminded me of the interesting tension we live in related to “our” money. I remember thinking to myself many times, “even though I am looking at all of these zeros and have access to all of these resources, at the end of the day, this is not my money, it belongs to the person who entrusted it with me, and I am simply managing it for them.”
Though defunct now and acquired by another company, you can read Waddell & Reed's self-description if you google it. Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. was an American asset management and financial planning company founded in 1937. It was a publicly traded company from 1998 to 2021. Key words there: asset and management. Waddell and Reed never owned anything; they only looked after it. And the money that a Financial Advisor would get to keep was only a portion of the assets under management.
It was a powerful push on me for how I viewed what I would have called until that day “my money.” During that time, I learned that I saw myself as an owner of the things God entrusted me all my life. If you can be honest, so have you. There is a good chance you still do. We see ourselves as owners—not managers—of what we have. Let me repeat that…
we see ourselves as owners, not managers, of what we have.
I am sure there is a gut reaction to push back against this—maybe—but might I remind you of just a few of the statistics—among Christians—that we surfaced in the first post?
Only about %15 of any congregation gives anything at all.
Today Christians are giving 2.5% of their income; during the Great Depression, it was 3.3%.
When surveyed, 17% of Americans stated that they regularly tithe.
For families making $75k+, 1% of them gave at least 10% in tithing.
I am a data guy—and if you did not read the first post in this series and want to see the rest of the data, including the fact that (declared) followers of Jesus' way could literally solve all hunger and water shortage, please check it out. This data is tough to ignore, yes? I have no desire to guilt anyone, but I do want you to flourish as people… I want you to succeed… and we cannot thrive as long as we think that what we have is ours to own rather than manage. What if it were true that we don't own anything but have been entrusted to manage that which belongs to God? What if several scripture passages made it clear that though we may have much or little, in the end, it is our responsibility to manage it well and not make it our own? Would that change how you handled “your” money? If you are a follower of the way of Jesus, you are responsible to God to bring Him the first and best of what He has entrusted to us in response to His giving His first and best to us in Jesus. We are responsible to God for how we use our resources because, ultimately, they are His resources. And interestingly, how we handle our money is the ultimate revelation of where we've directed our hearts.
We could sum it all up this way…
God Owns. I manage.
And if you want to secure your financial future and leave a lasting legacy, this little shift in thinking will be the first big step. Three principles highlight the truth of God's ownership and our management:
The Cosmic Ownership Principle
The Stewardship Principle
The Heart Principle
In Psalm twenty-four, the Psalmist writes, “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for He laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.” Given that everything in the known and unknown world belongs to Yahweh, it stands to reason that what we have in our hands, pockets, accounts, properties and assets all belong to Him. It is His.
Now, if you are not a follower of the way of Jesus, though I believe this to be true for you, I am not asking you to believe it because you have not accepted the love and leadership of Jesus. But how could we believe anything else for those who follow the way of Jesus? God owns everything. Which means what? If God owns everything, I own nothing—this is the Cosmic Ownership Principle. God owns everything.
In his book, The Treasure Principle, author Randy Alcorn shares the story of a local business owner who had this epiphany. Jerry Craven had a successful restaurant chain, two banks, a ranch, a farm, and real estate ventures. At age fifteen-nine, Jerry began looking toward retirement. He began searching for a lovely lakeside property, but God moved his heart in a different direction.
“God led us to put our money and time overseas, Jerry recalls. “It's been exciting. Before, we gave token amounts. Now we put substantial money into missions. We often go to India.” When asked what changed his attitude toward giving, Jerry explained. “It was realizing God's ownership. Once we understood that we were giving away God's money to do God's work, we discovered peace and joy we never had back when we thought it was our money!” It clicked for Jerry. God owns everything, so God gets to decide what happens with what Jerry and his wife have.
Knowing God owns everything leads us to the second principle—the Stewardship Principle. The Stewardship Principle tells us that God owns everything. I am His manager. Being God's manager is a noble calling, much nobler than managing the assets of a few wealthy human beings. Once we understand that God is the cosmic owner of all things, we must naturally accept that what we do is manage what we have for him. God has not given us His stuff. He has entrusted us with His stuff.
You may be thinking, “I made this money.” But as a follower of the way of Jesus, how do you reconcile that thinking with God's own words?
“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’ but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” [Read Deuteronomy 8:17-18 for reference] God gives us the power to get money. Do you see how these are building on one another? God owns it. God gives us the power to get it. Which reasonably means what? God expects good management of His stuff. [Read Matthew 25:14-29 for reference] At a minimum, we must pause and ask, “am I a good manager of God's stuff?” Like my role in Financial Services, a good steward or manager manages assets for the owner's benefit. A good manager has no sense of entitlement to the assets she manages; it is her job to determine what the owner wants to do with His assets and carry out His will.
Interestingly, there is no greater freedom in the world than realizing that we are managers, not owners. Again, in his work The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn tells a story about something we would find incredibly traumatic—at least I would.
Once, a distraught man rode his horse up to the late John Wesley, founder of many churches and a denomination here in the U.S., shouting, “Mr Wesley, something terrible has happened! Your house has burned to the ground!” Wesley paused to weigh the news for a moment and then calmly replied, “No. The Lord's house burned to the ground; that means one less responsibility for me.”
So far, we have seen two profound principles which should inform how we see what we have, The Cosmic Ownership Principle and The Stewardship Principle. The last thing I wish to share with you today, which connects to the previous two principles, is… The Heart Principle. The Heart Principle comes directly from Jesus' own words. Note, Jesus talked about money more than He did Heaven or Hell, so why are we, as followers of His way, so active in avoiding the subject? The Heart Principle is simple—My heart always goes where I put God's money. Our spending, our saving if we do it, our investments, and our giving (or lack thereof) reflects our heart and priorities [Read Matthew 6:21 for reference]
By telling us that our hearts follow our treasure, Jesus says, “show me your bank account, credit card statements, and receipts, and I will show you where your heart is.” Money leads. Hearts follow. If you want to leave a financial legacy, then you have to place your money in a place that your heart will go to produce such a legacy, and there is no greater place to place it than in the places God—the owner—directs.
When we consider these three principles: The Cosmic Ownership Principle, The Stewardship Principle, and The Heart Principle, it is reasonable to think that all of us have something with which we must wrestle, and according to the data, most of us have a great deal with which we must come to terms. If you are going to create a financial future that leaves a legacy, then we must adhere to these three principles; otherwise, what we build has no promise of lasting. God owns. I manage. Legacy secured.