Ownership

Psalm 24:1-2

          “That’s mine!” yells the toddler to their sibling. This is a familiar call heard around the world where two toddlers live in the same house. In some cases words might not be used, but just a simple grab and shove are a good substitute. Professional football players get paid millions of dollars to do the same thing. It is so contentious that they have had to make up rules and have referees. Some boys never grow up.

          In our day of Facebook and Instagram possession gets moved to the front page of some people/s lives. Selfies demonstrate how people view their importance. They are often taken as a way to say, “Look at me and where I am.” They are taken with famous people in popular destinations. “Look at the life I can afford and the people I hang out with.” But their credit card statement might give a more accurate picture of their lives.

          And now in the age of a three parent child, ownership and parental rights will become an even more contentious issues. When the divorce happens, who will pay child support and in what proportions? And in divorce cases, a 400 million dollar case is in the tabloids, who gets what?

          Well a big ownership issue is settled if we believe the words of our psalm. The earth’s owner is the LORD. He may have signed a lease agreement with us, but He did not give us ownership of it. We are given responsibilities for keeping up the place, but it is not a rent to own agreement. It will always revert back to the original owner. The parallel lines of the first two verses, each second line refining and emphasizing the first, show us that it is all His, down to the last drop. Earth, world, everything, all who live, founded, established, seas, waters. He is the owner.

          This can be hard for us to grasp since we are such an ownership culture. And yet we are such a throw away culture as well. We get a new phone, not because ours doesn’t work, but because it is “so last year.” It doesn’t have the status power that the newest one does. It won’t draw attention to us and our lifestyle choices. So we wait in line overnight in order to get the newest on the first day. We might even engage in a little healthy push and shove if someone else is trying to get the last one, the one we are supposed to have.

          Do you recognize everything as belonging to the LORD? Or do you put your name on certain things? My mother is getting older and has had us kids put our names on items in her home that we would like after she dies. I don’t think I have my name on too many things. It is just stuff after all. Stuff I will have to find room for in my home. And my home already has enough stuff!

          The first thing we need to establish in our spiritual journey is ownership. Does the LORD own us, or does He just have some say in our decisions? Does He own us or just enhance what we already have? Does He own us or add a little something extra to our recipe for life? If we don’t give Him what is His, full ownership, we are robbing Him and fooling ourselves. And we can’t just remodel as we choose. He designed us according to His plan, and any alterations to the original design must be OK’d by the Owner.

Renounce

Proverbs 17:2

      We have the ability to renounce our citizenship. We can voluntarily give up our rights and the protections afforded us citizens of a nation. In fact, giving up citizenship is one of the ways that some people are trying to avoid all the taxes and regulations that are about to hit us here in the USA.

      During Biblical times, there were many laws about inheritance and the transfer of wealth and property from one generation to the next. They might not have had the army of lawyers that exist today, but they still had rules. One of the rules was that relatives had priority over hired help when things were divided up. Children had first rights over the inheritance. Servants had no rights to inheritance.

      There was one exception to this rule: if the children were rebellious, their rights to property could be withdrawn. The parents could then choose someone else to receive the children’s portion. To put it another way, it pays to be a faithful servant if there are rebellious children.

      We might not have been born with all the privileges that some others have. Our past might leave us a little on edge. But faithfulness now does make a difference. And in reality, now is all we have. We can’t change where we were born, or who our parents were, but we can do the right things now.

      If we have the natural rights, then we need to use them wisely. We do have the ability to give them up. We can do this by acting irresponsibly, not taking into account that we are His children.

      We have the choice.