The Lord spoke to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest, you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest.” Leviticus 23:9–10
During the years I worked in large corporations, I learned some important things about how people mistreated the company’s assets. I’m not talking about people who had direct access to the corporation’s balance sheets. I’m not even talking about folks who had anything to do with finance at all.
The problem was paper clips. I’m serious. People threw paper clips away. They’d finish reading a document that had several pages clipped together. Then they’d throw the whole thing away, clip and all.
My boss, who was a stickler for details, and I had a talk about paper clips. We decided that folks who didn’t feel that it was their job to take a moment and slip off the clip, probably wouldn’t take care about more significant assets if they had access to them.
Now, I know that an overspent paper clip budget has rarely been the reason for a corporation’s financial demise. In fact, I can’t even imagine that tossed paper clips have ever shown up on any office manager’s financials at all. The point is this: paper clips can be symbols. When employees throw them away, they’re “telling” their employer that looking out for paper clips doesn’t matter. They have other, more important things to do than to look out for something that’s of no concern to them. And bit by bit over a long period of time, that attitude can be devastating to a company’s profits.
Today’s verses make a powerful statement about taking care of more than just our own things. In fact, it helps us see that we have a tremendous responsibility to take ownership of the things that surround us. The Bible calls this stewardship, and it’s one of the most often repeated charges to God’s people.
When the people were commanded to bring a portion of their harvest to the priest, this was intended to be a symbol to them that everything they enjoyed was to be treated with special attention. They were not owners, only caretakers.
This truth also applies to you and me. Everything—our careers, our possessions, our families—belongs to the Lord. He has only put these things under our temporary watch. And He wants us to be good stewards of everything. Including paper clips.