Learning To Live A Life

Learning To Live A Life

While on a trip to Switzerland, an America businessman was watching a Swiss clockmaker carving the case of an ornate cuckoo clock. As the businessman watched the clockmaker carve out the case, he was astounded at his slow rate of progress. The businessman finally said, “My good man, you’ll never make much money that way.” “Sir,” the clockmaker replied, “I’m not making money, I’m making cuckoo clocks.”
What are you making these days – a living or a life?
We begin today a three-week study on stewardship that will end on April 1st with One Great Day of Giving of which you will hear more about next Sunday.
Stewardship – what is it? What does it mean? It is one of those ‘religious’ words that we like to use and yet it is a very important principle in our lives no matter what we do or who we are. Here is one definition of what it means to be a steward -one actively concerned with the direction of the affairs of an organization.
One of the assumptions we make about stewardship is that it is always and exclusively about money and that is not true. This definition of steward is broad in its scope because a steward, whom we could today call a manager, must concerned about all aspects of an organization not just money.
God has given to us three tools that we are to use if we are to live a life as a good steward, a good servant, and a good manager of Jesus Christ. Those three tools are – time, treasures, and talent. They are the means that God gives us to make not just a living but a life.
And I would remind us today that the bottom line for us as both a person of Jesus Christ as well as the people of Jesus Christ is not financial but spiritual. “Why?” you might ask. Stewardship is about the choices we make because of who we are – our character in other words.
Jesus spoke several times in the gospel about stewardship and about being good stewards. He did so because God is concerned about what kind of character we are developing because our character is a very clear demonstration about our commitments and values. Our character testifies, if you will, about what we really believe.
How do you spend, how do you use your time? How do you spend, how do you use your treasure? How do you spend, how do you use your talents? The answer to these questions will help us determine what kind of stewardship we demonstrate in our lives.
Today, we are looking at our stewardship of time. Now compared to talents and treasures, all of us have the same amount of time – we each have 24 hours in the day. Some of us have more treasure than others and some of us have more talents than others. But, we all have the same amount of time. How do you spend your time?
How much time do you spend on family life, financial management, personal growth, physical health/fitness, social life, spiritual life/growth, and work? I know that we are different places in our lives and some of you are saying what social life? And work? I gave that up years ago!

One of the biggest challenges many people face is time management. In fact, millions of dollars are spent every year on time management seminars, books, and tools in order to help a person better manage their time.
Here is a web page (from Franklin Covey.com)from one such organization. They offer a lot of products, services, and publications