Wise Folly: Stewardship and Resource Management

Biblical and Practical Leadership Part 1: 

"Remember how short my time is!" Psalm 89:47

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
 a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;" Ecclessiastes 3:1-3

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Ephesians 5:5-17

"Keep this...appointed time from year to year" Exodus 13:10

This comes from a learning college student who understands the fruit of this particular issue, though not a well seasoned expert on resource managment...

I believe that as you study the Bible you will find great wisdom about many a thing including leadership. Great leadership is not about power and authority. Leadership is not about being in the spot-light. What does it take to make a great leader? Here are three things that I will discuss in basics about Biblical leadership, which proves to be quite practical for even you skeptics: Servant-hood, example leadership, and stewardship and resource management.

I choose first to talk about the last, stewardship and resource management, because it is probably the biggest practical issue we all face. How do I cram so much into so little? Time and money being the biggest resources to be allocated. Let me start by saying that this is a biblical principal. Resource management is Biblical! I am not speaking as an expert, just as someone who has figured out the hard way in college that it is necessary. When you have 3 tests to study for, 2 projects to do, teenagers to teach, a job to do, and friends to hang with you have to learn to manage your time otherwise you could end up screwing up the most important of your priorities. Yes, that's rights priorities. You must prioritize. Seriously, start every week with time set aside to budget your time for that week. Let's face it, hanging with friends isn't as important as acing that Greek test, and even that is not as important as spending time for spiritual propulsion.

Scripture also talks about organization. God is not a god of chaos! Why should we let our lives be chaotic? Be organized. Be prepared. The practical illustration goes something like this. You have a jar that represents the totality of a specific resource, say time. Anything that can fit inside the jar you have the time to do. You have rocks, pebbles and sand representing your priorities, rocks being the largest represent the main priorities (time with God, work, studying), pebbles represent the lesser, and sand the least (playing wii for five hours). If you start with your jar full of sand you cannot get the rocks in the jar, let alone the pebbles. However, if you carefully place each rock into the jar, and then let the pebbles fall in around them you still have room to pour the least important sand (all of it if you measure carefully). In fact, you can then even take water and pour it in slowly. This common and simple illustration shows that we are poor managers of our resources. Take financial budgeting for instance. If we do all of our fun and frivilous spending at the beginning of the month we will have to scrounge together the money to buy groceries, pay and bills, and tithe. But if we prioritize, put God first, then pay our bills, and even give others an opportunity to recieve from our generosity, we will better manage our resource of money.

The leadership application. It's simple you can't lead others effectively if your resources are ill-managed. You just can't! It is bad both in practice as you give time  to your areas of leadership (if you mismanage something important and vital could be neglected) and in the example you set as a leader (which will be a whole 'nother segement of Wise Folly). Time is a very limited resource. We cannot, no matter how hard we try, add more time to our days. Our time is short and precious. We cannot waste it. Paul even says in Ephesians 5 that to not understand this is to miss the will of the Lord. Biblical Leadership.

Here is the "exception". Leave space in the margins.

Plan your whole day, week, whatever, hour by hour, minute by minute if you have to. But leave the margins of your paper (figuratively and literally) empty. This means that you have extra "down time." This is kind of like planning for spontentaity, but not that extreme. The margins allow you to be spontaneous yet still aware of your obligations. You can be a little off schedule every once in a while if you have a margin to fall back on.

And don't forget about the sabbath principle. Every body needs a day of rest...