The First Fruits of Ourselves

What does the Lord require of me?  To do justice love mercy and walk humble with my God.

When I was training to be a nursing supervisor, the person orienting me said that when she goes to a unit during a "code" or some other crisis, she tells them what she is going to do to help out.  

I rejected that approach very early on.  When I showed up in response to a crisis, I may have been the supervisor, but the nurses on that unit knew the situation and what needed doing.  And so I would ask how I could help out while I surveyed the scene for what else might need to be done.

One day when I was visiting one of the elderly shut-ins of my church and she was telling me about back in the thirties when she got married.

She belonged to the big Methodist church in town and he to the tiny Lutheran one.  She said they prayed about which church to be a part of and decided that the Lutheran church needed them more.

Kind of like John Kennedy's "Ask not ..." speech.

It is not even that the smaller church always needs you.  It is just about what does God want me to be doing here.  Even when choosing a church or our jobs in the church we tend to think about what we are going to get out it instead of what we could give.

So I said to this elderly lady, "Would you chair the stewardship committee of the church?"  She laughed because she rarely gets out of the retirement home.  But she knew what I meant.  We need to give the first fruits of our time and energy too, and to give it where God needs it, not where we need it.

Lord, help me to see that walking humbly means doing your will and not mine, And walking with you means beside or behind with you in charge. Amen

Copyright (c) 2004, The Rev. Dana Reardon. 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.