What do I own?For much of my life I considered working and earning a wage for the work I did as the way of the world. Earning a wage for working was only right. And that meant that how I spent what I had earned was up to me. Then one day I began to consider that I should give to God a portion of what I earned. I saw it as biblical and understood that I should do it just for that reason.
But as time has passed a new understanding of what I own and what is mine has begun to creep up on me. I have come to understand that my gifts and talents are from God and that God has given me talents to be used for God and for people. Then I came to understand that my earnings are His, and that the opportunities that come my way me are of His making as well. So what do I really contribute to this equation? I show up and try? Yet often I am not even giving my best effort. Well, I never did when I worked for money. When I worked for myself I often worked just hard enough to get by. Then things changed for me.
I find a much more beautiful world when I consider it all a gift: Each day a gift; each person and relationship a gift; the abilities I have, and strangely enough the things I don’t have--all gifts. The irony here is that when I was holding on to what I thought I owned, I felt I never had enough, and I was always trying to acquire more, but in letting go of ownership of all these things, I have come to find I had too much. I find that my talents are for other people, my gifts to be given away, and my soul is in a place of joy and serenity. And working hard, it’s not hard when I am just paying attention and being present in the daily divine appointments that have been made for me. In owning nothing I have come to possess all I need. I receiving gifts, I have been able to live as one who is beloved of God, because I finally understood myself to be beloved.
