Dana Reardon -Where your budget is, your heart is also

Where your budget is, your heart is also

I have been thinking about economies, big and small. After all that is what the word stewardship refers to in Greek.

I have been wondering how we have so many billions in this country for wars and millions for prisons and then not enough for education or for healthcare.

No, this is not wholly a political diatribe, because my wondering came to an answer that led to some more questions-rather personal ones.

i know why the money seems so lopsided in the government. That is because the budget is done by different departments each lobbying for what seems important in their realm. And on top of that there are lobbyists and legislators who care about certain interests or constituents. The budget is not done by people who have come together and decided what they want the country or the world to look like and then apportioned the money accordingly.

The next question that arose in my mind was about the way my money is apportioned. What is lobbying for my attention and my money? Am I any better at looking at the whole picture before I do my budget? Am I any better at seeing where my heart lies?

Is it so easy to open my purse for fast food and less easy for the hungry? Does my momentary hunger outweigh global hunger? These are just small examples.

Just as I think that budgets for governments should not be done piecemeal, but that the whole of what is important for us as a people should be considered when we budget, so I believe we should be doing it with our own budgets. If I want a world where everyone is fed, then I need to put that in my budget. If I want a place for people to hear the love of God, then I need to put that in my budget.

When we look at God's economy we see how it is done. God saw a picture of the world the way it ought to be and nothing was spared to buy it. It was purchased with His life.

And God has also given to us so abundantly that we can begin to use what we have been given to see the world as it ought to be and then budget for it.

Lord,
May the lobbying for attention in my heart be replaced only with your desires for me and for the world.
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.