Resources

Cast your bread upon the waters,

For you will find it after many days. (Ecclesiastes 11:1) 

This statement probably comes from the Egyptian practice of drifting down the Nile in a boat throwing seeds into the fertile marshy edges of the water. Grain was both their seeds for planting new crops and their food supply as flour to make bread. It doesn't take any leadership to drift down the river and slowly eat yourself out of food. We have to choose to either risk our life or slowly die clinging to comfortability. Leadership is choosing to throw away what appears to be our provision in order to turn it into a resource that produces something. (See also John 12:24-25).

If you change the way you think about something, you will be able to change the way you respond to it.

Everything we have is a resource. Our resources can be divided into two categories: resources we use to provide for ourselves and resources we invest and develop to become more productive. The resources we consume for enjoyment or sustenance are resources that are no longer available for us to develop. God gave Adam the fruits of the garden for enjoyment (they were good), but He also commanded Adam to cultivate the garden. We decide how we are going to look at the resources God has given us. We can see lemonade as a resource that can quench our thirst and we enjoy drinking or we can see it as a resource that can produce money and open a lemonade stand. The more resources we consume, the less resources we will have to turn into resource producing assets. We will always need to consume some amount of resources i.e. food, shelter, clothing, and we will always have other resources to decide what we are going to do with. Determining how we view each resource will determine how we use it and what resources we will have in the future.

Live or die at your own risk.

The greatest resource we have is our life. We can decide whether we are going to cling to our life  or view it as a resource we are willing to give away. “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:31-33). Abraham didn’t cling to His life in Ur, but was willing to throw it away to pursue following God and trust God to pursue developing a relationship with Him. Lot knew the people of Sodom and used that resource among others to protect the angels God sent to him (Genesis 19). He was willing to throw away his civil status and influence and was declared righteous (2 Peter 2:7-9). However, his wife seemed unwilling to let go of the life she had in Sodom and was turned into salt.

Your life is your greatest resource, use it to develop others and be willing to give it away so that God can give it back to you in abundance.