Fall is a great time to clean out your schedule

I just moved. As I was moving I looked though some of the things and had to decide what I needed and still used and what things I didn't. 

Then when I we got to the house we discovered that some of the furniture I had wouldn't fit up the stairs in my new house.  So they had to go. They were for the most part dressers, so I guess I will have to rethink how I organize my things. 

I have always seemed to move at least every three or four years.  I have the feeling I will stay out here a little longer.  I used to joke that even if you don't move every three or four years, you should pretend that you do and have a garage sale.  Get rid of the things you don't use and make room for what is really useful in your life.

 Fall is a time  when we all get a lot busier.  Count how many committees and choirs and activities start up.  Count how many new things into which you are invited.  If we are not careful we accumulate more things to do the same way that we accumulate things.  That makes fall a really good time to evaluate what we really need to be doing.

What is it in your life that really gives life to you and to others, and what merely takes your time?  And even if some of the things you are doing are important to others, maybe you no longer need to be the one to do them.

Have a garage sale.  Find someone else to do the things that are still good things to do but no longer fit your life, so that you can find the room in your life and time to do the things that you really feel called by God to do.

Stewardship of time is not just about signing up for one more committee at church.  It is about really examining what God is calling you to and what best supports that mission.  There can always be more things to do where you are but those things may keep you from going and doing what you are really called to do.  I think of Jesus when people were bringing their sick to him.  He could have stayed in one place forever, but he would always step back and refocus and rethink His mission and then when it was appropriate he would move on.

What new is God calling you to?   What furthers that mission?  Make room for it in your life.  Make room for Christ.

Lord, We thank you for the precious gift of time.  May we offer it up to you as we us it to your glory.  Amen



Copyright © 2006, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.



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.