Many reading this will react with a resounding, “well, duh!!!” but for me the notion of stewardship came late and was fought against at every step.
I suppose that ‘stewardship’ is just another way of saying ‘responsibility’ but with the added bonus of setting limits.
As a card carrying egocentric I had no working definition of stewardship. “Yeah, I made a mess. Don’t like it? Well, feel free to clean it up.”
I can’t say when the epiphany came but arrive it did and now, as much for own my sake as for anyone who doesn’t understand how I so easily invest time or energy in a project but am able to disassociate from the final outcome, my take on the Notion of Stewardship.
It’s quite simple really. It applies equally to people, pets, places and things. Whenever something comes into our lives requiring some action on our part, and we accept responsibility for it, then we are charged with doing the absolute best we can, to the limits of our ability, to assure a positive outcome.
Once we have done all that we can there will usually be someone or some office waiting to take stewardship of that particular situation and carry it further. When you have relinquished stewardship, bless it and let it go.
Sometimes it’s really hard to hand the keys to the Lamborghini to the Valet but it’s his job to park it, not ours.
