Iron & Altar

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come." - Ecclesiastes 12:1

Brother, Ecclesiastes hands you a steward's timing problem today, dressed up as a meditation on aging. Remember your Creator now, before the days come when remembering gets harder - before the strength you're currently spending without thinking twice about it starts running out. The text isn't really about old age. It's about using what's currently entrusted to you while you actually have it, instead of assuming you'll get around to the real stewardship later, once things settle down.

Every man reading this has strength right now he's not going to have forever - physical strength, mental sharpness, the number of years left to build something that outlasts him. A steward who treats that strength as an unlimited resource, always available for later use, is making a timing error Ecclesiastes names directly. The guardians of the house tremble eventually. The strong men bend eventually. What you don't spend now on the things that actually matter doesn't wait patiently in reserve for you to get to it. Some of the capacity for using it well simply erodes.

The Gospel gives you the same urgency from a different direction. Jesus tells his disciples plainly what's coming, and they don't understand, and they're afraid to ask him about it. That's the failure mode for a steward too - sensing that something important is being said, something that requires a response now, and staying quiet instead of asking the hard question because asking feels riskier than not knowing. A steward who's honest about his own limited time doesn't have room for that kind of avoidance. He asks.

Name one thing you have been putting off stewarding well - a relationship, a discipline, a piece of formation for yourself or your family - on the assumption that there will be a more convenient season later. Do the first concrete piece of it this week, while your current strength for it is still available.

Lord, I spend my strength as if I'll always have this much of it. Remind me now, while I'm still capable of acting on the reminder, that the days for using it well are not unlimited. Amen.