What starts with zero, ends with zero, and may be positive or negative in between? That’s right! A person’s net worth.

One man humorously described his negative net worth this way: “I came into this world with nothing, and I have most of it left.” Hopefully, your net worth is not like his!

We have our net worth for a finite amount of time, like a line segment that has a definite beginning point and a definite ending point. We tend to think of the assets we accumulate between those two points in time as something we own, but do we really own them if we can’t keep them forever?

It’s important for me to remember that I am not an owner. I am a manager, a steward, responsible for what God owns and has entrusted to me temporarily.

In Lyle’s last blog, he described the lack of contentment that results in the life of a person focused on pursuing possessions. He contrasted that with the person who is generous with his time, talents, and money.

I witnessed a real-life example of the latter at a Master’s client event at the North Museum. One of our clients, knowing that there would be lots of interesting things to enjoy at the museum, wasn’t thinking about the evening just for herself. She brought a group of kids with her that probably otherwise would never have had that kind of experience.

Paul tells Timothy to charge those with significant assets to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. This, he said, is the way to store up treasure that won’t one day evaporate and the way to take hold of life that is truly life.

Have you recently witnessed someone using his or her time, talents, or money in a generous way?

“…we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world.” I Timothy 6:7