It Starts in Our Hearts

          Harvest days. ‘All is safely gathered in.’ Abundant colors. The frost will soon be on the pumpkins. We hear that the supply of this particular fall staple may be diminished, due to rains of spring and summer; nevertheless, autumn resonates with a sense of fullness, of God’s providence for those God loves for the wintry days to come.

          Seeing and sensing these things, the heart is full. It’s no arbitrary choice that stewardship is emphasized during fall. No, it isn’t because it’s church budget time and we need to pledge to support our ministry in the year beginning in January. Stewardship is a year-round calling for the church. But is starts in our hearts; and we have so much to cause our hearts to be harvest-full.

          We truly diminish ourselves when we treat stewardship as a matter of money, and it becomes ‘the S-word’ that bugs us every November! Stewardship starts with the believer’s calling to recognize God’s hand in the abundance of earth, family, friendships, community – it moves out to a joyful caring for, or managing, our resources as the gifts

          God intends us to share. It starts in our hearts.

          Stewardship in our day is every bit as much about tending to our threatened environment, and balancing the gift of time among jobs, family, service and recreation, as it is about money.

          Recognizing that stewardship ‘training’ is an essential part of forming faithful Christians, the Session has decided to emphasize this theme more fully for all ages this fall. Our stewardship chairperson, Beth Denier, has an article elsewhere in this CrossRoads.

          For now, though, I encourage you to experience autumn – and life – as full of God’s giving to us.

Being joyful stewards
starts not with ‘what’s in our wallets’,
but with what’s in our hearts.

Peace,