Surrendering Gus
When Brianne and I were newly married, we thought it would be wise to walk through one of those financial curriculums together—just to make sure we were on the same page. So we joined a small group through my seminary that was studying curriculum that, like all of them, had elements of how to save, spend, and generally just keep a good perspective on money.
One of the exercises that we had to do was to write down everything that we owned. The purpose of this was to look at that list and realize that none of the stuff was actually our stuff. Rather, God has entrusted it all to us. It was called an inventory and (at the time) I thought it was kind of a joke. Not because doing an inventory is a joke, but because we owned almost nothing.
I think the full list contained: two wedding rings, two very old Honda’s, a guitar, and Gus. Gus? Yes, we bought a hanging plant a few months earlier at the local Wal-Mart and named him Gus. He was a heck of a plant, and he served the back corner of our 14’ x 36’ married housing dorm very well. Gus is no longer with us due to general lack of care and multiple moves across the country in the back of a Penske moving truck (which we named Penny). But Gus was a good plant, and he was worthy of our inventory.
Bri and I still reference Gus when we talk about how fortunate we are to be among the 1% (in the world), and how lucky we are to get to live in a house—with multiple plants! And we still carry with us the fact that surrendering everything really means everything. God has given us all that we have, and part of giving is acknowledging that none of it was ours to begin with. From 401k’s to Gus, it’s all on loan, and the question we have to ask is, “What can we do with what God has allowed us to have?”
In this season at Summit, we’re all being asked to enter into a unique time of surrendering, praying, and obeying. But in reality, this is a discipline in our lives that we’ll enter into countless times—with relationships, with money, with time, and with all the things God has seen fit to allow us to have dominion over. My hope is that all of us will make a detailed inventory of our lives and recognize that even the Gus’s matter a great deal to God.
by Eddie Kaufholz
Category Campus Insights