Dear Believers,
I’m returning this month to one of my favorite places! Not really a “place,” but more of a
“reality.” The “place” moves each year,
so it’s never the same “space” even. I
could say, “it must be the people,” but each time, many of the people change,
too. Yes …one of my favorite places is
Stewardship Kaleidoscope—an annual conference grounded in stewardship education
and generosity, giving and fundraising, where the topics almost always come
closely akin to the difficult financial realities churches and church leaders
are facing …but each conference always traffics in unmitigated joy!
Most of the time, when someone says, “stewardship,” most people
(especially church people) think, “money” or “conservation"—or sometimes,
the conservation of money! Which leads
church people to thinking about the lack of members …and decline …and sadness
or even shame. Put a bunch of these
folks in the room and you can’t imagine there’d be much joy—but you’d be
wrong! Because stewardship is God calling to us to share in what God
provides; where there’s no lack of resources, no shortage of love, no
absence in the face of need, where we’re met with an abundance rather than
enough. For conference-goers, who may
register for and show up all down in the mouth, worried and scared, afraid of
not having what they need for their congregations, the conference becomes a
lived in promise of the Psalmist decree—“weeping may endure for the night, but
JOY comes in the morning.” For most,
simply showing up will end long nights of worry and anxiety!
Most of us often think we know “JOY.”
But I’ve found over the years that JOY—born of gratitude—often goes
missing in our lives. Yes, most of us
would say we experience times of joy; but I’ve learned by experience and with
others, that these are like puddles after a rain, arriving and departing again,
leaving us …wanting. That even though we
maintain lives rooted in worship and spiritual practices among a supportive
community of fellow believers, our Joy is not always deep or abiding …and I’ve
been shocked to find you may not even notice it! You won’t even wonder where all your joy
went; then, you’re hanging out with people who understand gratitude …when you
realize your lack.
Stewardship people know that JOY is almost always born of
gratitude. And gratitude is like a
muscle that needs to be built up and exercised.
One of the easiest ways to begin is adopting language of gratitude—asking
yourself: “What am I most grateful for?”
And “What am I lease grateful for?”
Simply talking “gratitude” begins to reveal the reliably JOYFILLED
crevasses in every day. But when you
begin talking about gratitude, you more easily discover how to live IN gratitude;
and when you LIVE IN gratitude, you can have different responses. Like, having car trouble—you can be “least
grateful” for the trouble, but “grateful” for a friend who can give you a
ride. “Least grateful” about having to
find money for a repair; but grateful your store of riches includes someone who
can give you a ride to Wal-Mart. Stewardship
people see differently, somehow knowing a deep, abiding sense of God’s
presence, love, and joy.
Stewardship people realize the whole economy of gratitude works the
other way, too. You hear stories like,
“I didn’t want the waitress to be happy with a 15% tip for good service; I
wanted her to feel ecstatic and know the joy of real appreciation.” Or “That man might have been just fine with a
$20 bonus for going out of his way, I just wanted to see the look on his face
when it was a $50 bill instead!” And …it’s
never about the money; it’s always about passing around JOY! …Joy that somehow always finds a way back to
the one who gives it.
It’s been one of the great privileges (and joys) of my life to serve
on the planning team for the conference for nearly a decade. It’s taught me that joy is almost always
right in front of me. And that’s surely
been true, at First Presbyterian Church in Camden, too! I’m so incredibly grateful for your
witness and all that God’s love has provided for us!
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