Mirror Check: Be Generative

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Someone stole my Golden Girls mug at work. I still miss that mug. I went on a serious hunt for that mug. There is something about stealing that makes us feel violated. We know it’s wrong at our core. No one likes it. (And yet, despite this, we want to pretend it’s ok when we decriminalize it. Someone still ends up getting hurt because it’s the law of the universe hardwired inside of us. A local law doesn’t change this).

Exodus 20:15 (our mirror check) tells us: “You shall not steal.” (ESV)

It’s basic stuff. We show love toward our neighbor when we don’t steal from them. It means not taking their stuff; it means not taking credit for their ideas; it means not taking their husband; it also means not stealing their time. It means not taking what is not yours. Stealing comes in many shapes and forms.

Erwin Mcmanus always says something profound about this. Stealing is the death of creativity. A thief is someone who is so unimaginative, they have to take what someone else created or obtained because they do not believe they themselves are generative. They have more faith in the person whose thing they are taking. Be generative. Don’t kill your creativity by simply taking what someone else worked for. Stealing is the opposite of generous.

We shouldn’t steal things, time, people, ideas. We shouldn’t steal people’s joy.

Be generative of good things. It makes you more like God.

Mirror Check Questions: How can I take better inventory of how I may be hurting others by taking what is theirs? Is there something I am holding onto that is not mine? How can I be more generative and creative? Pray to be generous and generative today.