Stewardship. As Is.... As a gift.....

So I got to thinking today.  This is going to come at you from two different directions, so read it through if you want to get the idea in my brain.

We have all met somebody who was full of life, energy, etc, and who was just absolutely inspirational.  In spite of their disability.  I probably dont need to go much further than that.   Regardless of the fact that our friend's body was broken, mangled, or that their mind was somehow incomplete; that person that you are thinking of was inspirational to you.  Somehow, it seems as though these folks wouldn't be nearly as inspiring without that particular facet of their life.  If they were able to see. To walk. To do so many of the things that the rest of the world takes for granted.

Oddly, we have all met the same person with regard to the life that they lead.  We all know some truly inspirational people who are not very successful in life according to the social definition.  They have to stretch to make ends meet. They shop at a second hand store.  Perhaps they find the food that they eat, and the roof over their heads at a homeless shelter.

Homeless.  As in; according to that thick book I reference now and again; Your body is a temple.  Or according to Psalms, My Lord made my body, and then He breathed the breathe of life, my soul, into it.

So what happens when you are blessed with a perfect home?  And you spend your time taking perfect care of it?  Or when you are blessed with a perfect body (ie, earthly home for your soul) and you spend your time taking extreme care of that.  Well, the first thing that you do is glorify the Lord.  You are acting as a good steward. That goes without saying.  But what if you dont give credit where credit is due? So many of us think that because we mow the grass, and we clean out the gutters, and we refresh the paint; that we somehow deserve what we have been given.  And sometimes, we take our homes for granted; thinking that we are somehow glorified by it, and we become proud. Some of us even get to the point of being unwilling to use our homes to God's purpose, which is the reason we have been allowed our stewardship of it. Other times, we take our home for granted to the degree that we find ourselves just too busy to properly care for that which we have become responsible for.

This works, oddly, with your body. The temple for your soul. The earthly home for your soul.   We all are sometimes guilty of taking our bodies for granted.  We become proud of them, and our body becomes something that we think gives us some sort of status.  Other times, we take for granted to the extent that we dont take very good care of them.  We even sometimes abuse them.  We even use them to do things that do not express our desire, or our respect, for that which we have been given stewardship of.

Back to the ones who are inspirational.

Lets just pretend that we understood that our home was not ours to do with as we please.  That it was granted to us in some fashion beyond our control. Lets also pretend that we knew that this was the only home we were going to get. Much the same way as a gift given to you by a parent.  You dont always get to pick it out.  And lets also imagine that our home was not perfect in some way.  Maybe the back yard is smaller than our neighbor's back yard.  Perhaps our home is somewhat drafty.  Maybe the hot water doesn't get as warm as we might like.  But yet, our house shelters us from the rain, the cold, and even the heat.  It gives us a place to exist for the time that we are here. And we would take the best care of it that we were able, and we would therefore be happy with it as such.  As Is.  As a gift.

Or maybe we should imagine that our body was not ours to do with as we please. That it was the same sort of gift, as if from a parent, and that we also didn't get to choose it. Like an imperfect house, our existence meant that we needed help to breathe, to stand, all of those other things that most of us think of as horrible ways to live.  Things that other peoples homes are able to do for them. And lets for a minute look at it from the perspective of not having a choice in the matter.  Its this body or no body.  And we would be thankful for what we had been given, a home for our souls, As Is. As a gift.

Is it easier to imagine why some of those folks in horrible situations can be so amazing?  Perhaps they have stopped taking their homes for granted? Or worrying about people's perception of those parts of their homes, spiritual or actual, that they are not able to control?  My friend's home is not the biggest, or the nicest, or the prettiest.  In much the same way, my other friend Rudy needs a machine to breathe, and another machine to feed him. But both of their respective homes have been accepted, As Is. As a gift. 

And the both are able to be inspirational BECAUSE of it rather than in spite of it.

God Bless.