Dana Reardon - Time after time, our most precious gift

Time after time, our most precious gift

I used to write this column every Saturday. Somehow it got to be Sunday or Monday -- and now here I am writing it on Thursday. Interesting, because what I have been thinking about all week is the gift of time.

Recently I had a woman come to my door at the church. She wanted to talk. I was impatient. It was clear that it was not so much that she had real pressing things to talk about as that she had no one to talk to or to spend time with.

This is what struck me: The gift of time is not like any other gift that we give as charity. When we give money, it generally goes from those who have an abundance of money to those who have less. The money means more to those who have less, and so it is all the more precious.

But when we give of our time as pastors or nurses or teachers or counselors or just as caring friends, often we are giving something that we do not have in abundance to those who have way too much time on their hands.

There are people for whom time is not a precious commodity. It weighs heavy in their hands, not because of its value but because time seems endless. Those of us who are running around busily trying to do more things than we really should anyway can get really resentful of giving some of our precious time to those who seem to have too much of it.

I think that just this realization can help us to stop and think about what really is precious. Time is precious to us because our lives are full and meaningful. We have people we care about and things that matter to do. We have been truly blessed.

When we give of our time to people who seem to have an endless supply, we are giving not only time but also meaning. We are creating a little space in the vastness of their lives for some meaning. We are helping them to see that they matter. We create a space where at least some of their time held a precious gift. It held our caring.

I am hoping that thinking about my time this way will help me to spend it more freely and less begrudgingly. My time may be precious, but even time is a gift from God.

Lord, We thank you for the gift of our lives, may we share them generously as you shared your life with us. Amen

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.