Time for Others is Talent Aplenty

I am sitting at my desk looking out the window toward the parking lot. There is a man walking very patiently alongside an elderly man who is slow and halting, walking with a cane and oxygen. I can see the care and concern of the younger man by the way he is gently holding the other’s arm at the elbow.

It makes me start thinking about time and talent. Too often we lump them together, and we think that good stewardship is all about discerning what gifts you have, utilizing the time that you have in developing these gifts, and then sharing them for building up the Body of Christ and the betterment of the world.

But sometimes it is just about time and not necessarily about a particular talent. Does anyone have a special talent for just being there and not pushing or rushing, but rather honoring the other person just by having enough time to be patient with them?

Our days are so full, and people seem to be going faster and faster all the time. We begin to think that we are not accomplishing anything unless we are multitasking and doing three things at once. That makes it even harder to have the time to be patient with people.

Sometimes good stewardship is about going with our weaknesses. If you are impatient like me, then maybe together we should make a pact to work on it. I have heard it said that we become what we admire. I truly admire the patience of that man out there in the parking lot. He is showing honor to the elderly man by doing very little instead of doing much. It may even seem little to him, but from where I sit I know that he is someone I want to be like.

They are walking to an AA meeting in the lower level of my church. Maybe the younger man's patience is born out of a bond forged in common struggle. But if that is the case we are all dealing with -- the common struggle of being human and more of being the body of Christ in spite of our failings. So we don't have to be a part of the same self-help group to offer our time to each other.  We only have to be part of the same God helped group.

Lord,
We pray that you would slow us down enough so that we could see ourselves as you see us and we could refocus our time and our energy toward being you in this world.
Amen

Perhaps the treasurers feel a little like the proprietor of a summer resort when the weather is cool and rainy for a long time.  Okay, so maybe not like the owner, but perhaps the guy's accountant.  People just don't show up, and when they don't show up, neither does their money.

That doesn't happen in churches when the people of God there understand that while church may seem like a respite from the world, like a resort, the truth is it is much more.  The church is a gathering of people who become the body of Christ, and that body needs support all year long, not just when we can show up. 

Summer is a time when I feel most thankful.  The weather is warm and I can go outside without bundling up.  Everything is in bloom and beautiful.  And when I am most thankful, that is when I need to give the most.  Thankfulness and giving should never be separated.  They are part of a natural flow.  So it is not natural that when we are thankful we do not give.  Find a way.

One of my favorite ways to make sure I am giving all year round is by my automated giving.  I have my offering taken out of my checking account twice a month.  I know that even when I am away my church is doing fine.  And then I look for other ways to give.  I chose them carefully. 

Or maybe our church treasurers are feeling like the people who plowed snow in the Northeast this winter.  Or more like whoever does the books for them.  Their services weren't needed and their income is dependent on need.  Maybe in the summertime people don't need God and so they don't need to give.

Some of us might treat the church a little like the snow plow guy and pay only when the need is there.  There will always be people who come looking for a church when they need a wedding or a funeral.  And we will be here for them.  We will be here because there are people who know their need of God is unending and unremitting.  And those are the people who support the church and keep it going by their generosity.  Or so it would seem.

Once the treasurer at our church was worrying a little over the next year's finances because our deficit was small the year before because of one sizable check put in the plate at the end of the year for tax purposes.  What if it isn't a good year for the stock market?

I said to this very dedicated treasurer, "If there were no God you would be absolutely right."  But the truth is, for all of our generosity and giving, everything comes from God.  Even the impulse of that woman to put that check in the offering plate came from God.  One year God may manage to keep us going with a single check.  Another year it may be a general increase in giving as God opens our heart to share Christ's love.

The truth is that for 133 years God has kept my church going, and for two thousand years God has continued to gather enlighten and make holy the whole church on earth.  A big part of the making holy is the opening of our hearts and our pocket books. 

I started writing this column to remind us all to keep our church in our hearts and our checkbooks even when we are away, but I was reminded in the midst of it that we are never out of the heart or mind or treasure of Christ.

Lord, We give thanks for faithful treasurers and stewards but more for You who give us all that we have to share and for your Son and His sprit that keep us in you.  Amen

Copyright © 2007, 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.