Dana Reardon - To see God's hand in everything

To See God's Hand in Everything

"God's the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy."

I started off with two disparate ideas to write on this morning and maybe you will hear about them in the future. One was about good planning and subsequent abundance and the other was about the morning I almost ran out of gas.

But the seeming disconnect between the two made me want to talk about what stewardship teaching is for. It is to help us to give thanks in all the times of our lives.

The purpose of stewardship teaching is to help us to see God's hand in everything.

When we get too good at financial planning and things are going well, our best response should be thanksgiving and first fruits. But sometimes we need some help to be reminded of where it all came from so that we can be generous in the knowledge that the one who gave it to us owns it all.

When things are getting tough, sometimes we need to be reminded that God is with us. Sometimes we get discouraged. I have to tell you I prayed all the way to the gas station the other day and coasted in on fumes, but sometimes when I am having a bad day, I can use a reminder that God is with me in it. Sometimes God is leading me through it and sometimes away from a bad direction, but still God is there.

So that is our job as stewardship teachers -- no that is our job as Christians -- to help each other to see God's loving purpose in everything so that we can be a part of that purpose.

Paul taught us that a good steward is not necessarily one with a healthy bank account, but neither is it necessarily the one who has nothing because he has given it away. Paul wrote to the Phillipians:

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

May we in all things give thanks. 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.