Radical Stewardship
Whose Stuff is it Anyway?
John and Jan are living out their retirement in a beautiful, lakeside house in Northwest Indiana. Generous by nature, they regularly welcome all sorts of visitors into their lives and home.
One of the more surprising groups they host year after year is a group of young men served by a Christian ministry in Chicago. Ranging from teenagers to 20-somethings, the young men come from tumultuous backgrounds. Most of them are current or former gang members, and, in one way or another, all of them have been touched by poverty, violence, racism, and addiction.
Each year, John and Jan offer the young men and the ministry’s leaders a quiet day away from the city, complete with meals, tubing behind their boat, beachside relaxation, and devotions.
Stunned by their kindness, one of the young men asked John a pointed question. “Why do you let me in your house and on your boat? Don’t you know I could completely rip you off?”
Unfazed, John gave him a simple, confident answer.
“Well, you wouldn’t be ripping me off. You’d be ripping God off. It’s all His stuff. I’m just a caretaker of it.”
“It’s all His”
John’s answer reveals a radically different way of looking at possessions. John and Jan’s outlook doesn’t begin with what they own. It begins with Who owns them—and what they’re supposed to do with all the stuff He’s placed into their care.
John and Jan embody the confidence, joy, peace, and strength that come from knowing everything we have is on loan from God, to be managed and used for His glory.
As John explains, “Our names might be on the title, on the bank account, on the vehicle registration, but it all belongs to him.”
Our money? It’s His. Our careers? They’re His. Our time? It’s His.
Even the people we’ve been entrusted to love—our spouses, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors—they all belong to Him.
Considering this truth, how shall we then respond?
With hearts willing to obey. Ears listening for direction. Tongues prepared to speak. Feet ready to move. Hands opened to give.
As faithful stewards, we are eager to do, give, say, and go as He instructs. We focus our attention on the Giver, not the gifts.
Sometimes that means giving away our resources. Other times, it means opening our homes and filling our boats with young men from Chicago.
However the Spirit leads us, we hold loosely to what’s been placed in our hands. What belongs to God is safest when it is available for His use.
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This content is written as part of Generosity Today (2026, Issue 4).
