Stewardship Mini Miracle

Hello friends.  Yes it’s been quite some time since my last blog post. The longer one waits for inspiration, the harder it is to find.  It felt like I did not have anything worthwhile about which to write.  But something happened today that finally felt worthy of my testimony.

Those of you who are in church know it’s that time of year again where churches try to find creative and palatable ways to inspire their members to give generously and pledge money so budgets can be determined for the upcoming year. As someone who has been involved in a few stewardship campaigns, I can tell you it is a very arduous process.  In our culture it is extremely taboo to tell people what they should do with their money. Probably not unlike it was in Jesus’ time. Matthew 22:21 tells us, Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ 

It is verses like this one that remind me that my money is not really MY MONEY. Jesus challenges Christians to remember that all blessings ultimately come from God. I think it is powerful that every Sunday when the offerings are presented up at the alter the priest says, "All things come from thee oh Lord." Then we respond, "And of thine own have we given thee."

I think for many of us this message is hard to stomach. We would rather hold on to our money and expect the church to be grateful for whatever we choose to give. Jesus' counter cultural message is that our money does not solely come from our own hard work, but rather is a blessing from God. We are merely stewards who are called to use this money for the glory of God's kingdom on Earth. The bottom line is that how we spend the money with which we have been blessed says a lot about what we believe and where our values are.

Like many of you, I’m on a stewardship journey. I take the scriptural call to tithe very seriously. I give 10% of my income, before taxes, to support God’s work in the church.  This year that comes to $4,000, which for me is A LOT of money! Needless to say I am still working on being a truly joyful giver. Some weeks I give more joyfully then others.  In fact, on the worst days I can feel rather bitter about the money I don’t have any more. On the best days I feel extraordinarily grateful for all the blessings in my life and the ability to give a tenth of it back. But tithing is supposed to be hard.  We are giving our first fruits to the Lord trusting that he’ll provide for us no matter what unforeseen consequences arise. 

This is why I truly love stewardship season every year.  For me, it is a spiritual challenge that provides me with an opportunity to evaluate where my heart is at this time and in this moment. How thankful and blessed do I feel deep down?  I know in my head that I have so many blessings for which to be thankful but do I truly internalize it? Year after year, God has shown me that my finances always work out in the end and yet year after year pledging is hard! 

All these thoughts have been swirling around my head these past few weeks as I have been figuring out my pledge.  As you are well aware this time of year brings with it lots of expenses in the form of holiday travel, gifts and even extra tips! So it was fitting that in this context today we celebrated commitment Sunday at Trinity. Pledging members walked up the aisle before communion and dropped little cards in the basket as a public expression of stepping out in faith and trusting God with the first fruits of our labor.

After church today I went to get a chip in my windshield repaired. One of those unexpected expenses that always seems to pop up this time of year.  In fact last week when it happened I was rather bitter about it. I was on my way to volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul’s with some students after school when the rock hit my windshield!  Did you catch that?! I was going to volunteer with homeless people! I was so annoyed I even wrote down the trucks’ license plate because I had this crazy notion it was their fault and they should pay for the damage. As if they could control a rock being in the road. Ironically enough, later that same evening at a Thursday evening service, I prayerfully filled out my pledge card and turned it in.

So anyways, like I said, after prolonging it through the Thanksgiving holiday, today after church I went to get that pesky chip repaired. I was quoted a price of $40 because it turned out there were actually two chips not just one. UGH. But it needed to be done so I resigned myself to that fact and went inside to wait. After awhile the guy came in and told me he was finished. I followed him out to my car and was pleased to see my windshield looked great! I turned to the guy as he was walking away and he said, “Have a nice day ma’am.” I called after him, “Wait, I haven’t paid yet!”  To which he replied again, “Have a nice day ma’am” and kept walking away.

I was and still am stunned.  What just happened?!  That little chip on my windshield was the perfect sign my heart needed.  Everyone always says if you don’t get those little chips repaired right away they will turn into a worse problem in the future.  So too was I facing a little chip in my joyful and exuberant sense of generosity. That repair man not only patched my windshield today, he was also balm to my wounded heart on this Commitment Sunday.