If I asked you for $5,000, would you give it to me?

Unlikely.

But, in the event you actually would consider it, you’d certainly have questions:

  • Why do you need it?
  • Why can’t you use your own money?
  • Can’t you get it from somewhere else?
  • When will you pay me back?
  • What do I get in return?

My hunch is, you’d have similar questions if I asked you for $50.  I can’t fathom you’d hand me $50 and move on with your day.  Instead, you’d want to know the expectations of the exchange of your hard-earned money and whether or not it made sense for you.

What about 5 bucks?  That request might elicit some line of questioning, but you might be more apt to consider doing it because $5 is unlikely to affect anything about your life.

It strikes me that we can be so vigilant about small amounts of money, let alone large. Yet when it comes to how freely we give away our attention, our time, and our energy, our standards weaken, and we give it away without consideration.

We’d ask a half-dozen clarifying questions before giving a friend $1,000.  And not just of them…but ourselves too.  And while that certainly checks the boxes of good financial stewardship, it’s a practice we rarely consider before giving away our attention, time, and energy to a myriad of things in our lives.

We utilize elite software and spreadsheets and we may even pay professionals to track and protect our financial resources, yet our personal resources are neglected and left unguarded.  Left unchecked, we divert our attention to doom-scrolling, our time to unproductive endeavors and our energy to following the media down a twisted path of Below the Line thinking.

What then, shall we do?

Cower in the face of adversity and fear?

Shall we hunker down, protecting our personal resources from any outside exposure?

May it never be!  Let your light shine for all to see.  Spend your resources – your time, attention and energy – on life-giving things.  Stay Above the Line.  Learn.  Process.  Encourage others.  Give until it hurts to things that matter most.

May you steward your personal resources just as well, if not better, than your financial ones, and may you stay Above the Line in the pursuit of your calling.

And may you live on purpose today.