“Be brave enough to steward everything you have in a way that displays God’s great generosity.” Annie F. Downs, 100 Days To Brave

This devotional book is about being brave. And as I often tell my children, you can’t be brave if you aren’t at least a little bit scared, otherwise you’re just doing a regular thing rather than a brave thing.

Do we believe that God gave us everything we have? Our money, our family, our time, our skills, our body, our mind, our history, our ideas, our resources: do we think of these as things belonging to God that he’s given to us? If someone gave me a box of chocolates during a team activity I think I’d share them with those people around me. I like to think I wouldn’t keep them to myself even if I wasn’t expressly asked to share them! What do I find hard to share with people? It’s not necessarily that I see the things I have and want to hoard them, it’s more that when I think of “my” things I don’t see how they could be of any use. I’m sure Annie’s personal stories about her challenges and joys in singlehood encourage others, but my story, surely it wouldn’t have any impact at all…would it?

Maybe it’s not our decision. Maybe we just share what we have and we find out in the new heaven and the new earth what was what. Maybe sharing just happens when we remember our stuff are gift. Like the imaginary box of chocolates, it’s easy to share a gift.

Downs asks us today to make a list of everything we have from God that could ever possibly be shared. Let’s make our lists without evaluating whether they are big or small, valuable or not.