“Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.”
~ Luke 16:2
One really comforting thought for is is that of a loving God, who created me out of nothing and expecting nothing in return but my love. And when I do wrong or fall short of expectations, I think of Him as the infinitely merciful and all-forgiving Lord, who came to save from my sins and failings.
But there is a dynamic I have learned about the spiritual life that balances this compassionate and potentially careless view of God. I have been blessed with the gift of life and loved immensely by God. But of everything else in my life, I am but His steward. And there will be a time of reckoning when I will be asked to give a full account of my stewardship. Even the talents I have, I will be asked what I have done with them. Because I was made in the image and likeness of a loving God, I cannot but be an echo and a mirror of that reality. My life was given to me to be spent not for myself but in love and service of others. I will be judged not by what I have and have received but by what I do and have done with what I have received and by what I give away and share with others.
And here is the clincher: the Lord will remember more the good things I have done that those where I have missed and He will show me how and where I failed but will take these upon Himself for me.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.
~ Rabindranath Tagore