Stewardship 101 - Free to Be

Celebrating my son's birthday today (Happy Birthday Mike) reminds me of a revolutionary children's album named "Free to Be You and Me" that came out when he was a kid. It included a song by Roosevelt Greer called "It's All Right to Cry" and others that portrayed the many ways in which we could free ourselves to be who we were intended to be if we weren't afraid to listen to our own hearts. The life of a steward is a life of freedom from that kind of fear, but it's not just freedom from, it's freedom for. When a steward is free from fear, a steward is free to be....

Free from fear of loosing property - free to be generous
Free from fear of loosing face - free to be courageous
Free from fear of failing - free to be creative
Free from fear of being a square - free to be faithful
Free from fear of judgment - free to be open to love

You get the picture. I'd invite you to share your ideas in the comments field.

A steward is free to be all of these things, but best of all, free just to be, to be whatever and wherever God calls.  Maybe there's one more big one.

Free from fear of what God will ask -- free to be open to listen and discern God's call.

Stewardship 101 - Things that go bump in the night

What am I afraid of? When I wake up in the night, what runs around in my head and keeps me from going back to sleep? Looking foolish? Loosing my money? Never making enough money in the first place? Dying? Outliving my money? Public speaking? Judgement by my friends and family? Being uncool? Poor health? Lightening? Loosing my job? Failing an exam? Raising teenagers?  Have I hit your hot button yet?

Most of my fear has to do with losing something (the exception might be getting a disease but even then I'm really afraid of losing my health). A lot of my fear has to do with other people's opinions of me.

When I stop hanging on to things, I stop being afraid. One way to stop hanging on to things is to understand they never really belonged to me in the first place, I was  just a caretaker. They and I were partnered for a brief dance during which we enjoyed each other. Each of us is constantly passing through to another destination. Everything is only a temporary state during which we have the chance to learn, to love, to grow, and to share. If we do those things fully in each dance, we can move gracefully on to the new partner without fear or regret. Every wisdom literature tells this story. Knowing it in my head is one thing. Knowing that truth in my heart and body is another. Knowing is the first lesson to learn in Stewardship 101.

Stewardship 101 - Why the Steward's Life

John Henry Faulk tells the story of gathering eggs at his grandmother's house when he was nine years old. Encountering a chicken snake, he and his cousin scrambled over each other trying to get out of the henhouse, each winding up considerably worse for the wear. When his grandmother admonished him that a chicken snake wouldn't hurt him he replied, " Yes, but it can scare you so bad you can hurt yourself."

Fear too often acts like a distorting window glass between me and reality, causing me to live out a fantasy of despair instead of God's true life of peace and joy. A good portion of the Bible is devoted to telling stories about how people reacted out of fear to what appeared to be real, instead of the actual reality as God had revealed it to them, with disastrous consequences.

Most of the time that I spend being unhappy is due more to what I fear than to what has really happened. My fear of suffering often causes me more pain that actually experiencing the pain I feared. There is energy and vitality in fighting the dragon. It's hiding in the cave waiting that's hard. 

For me the good news of the Christian way is that I don't have to live ruled by fear.
There is a better, truer way, the steward's way. A steward is free because a steward understands the true relationships among him or her self, God, and creation. Acting out of the purity of that vision, the steward is free from fear, and free for joy. To quote an old movie title, "its a Good Life."

Welcome to the Circle

The circle is one of the oldest and strongest images known to man. We gathered in a circle to tell our stories, circled the wagons to protect ourselves going west, joined in a circle to play games as children, sat in council circles to make decisions, and circle up for prayer. The circle is strong to protect us within, yet infinitely expandable to include. We're trying a new thing, using the circle, not a committee, task force, or board, to describe the virtual and real group of people who define themselves, or are seeking to define themselves, as Christian stewards. What is a steward? Where do we start? Here's a starting place.

We are all stewards. The only question is what type of stewards we will be. What is a uniquely Christian steward? If stewardship is caring for, what are we caring for, and most importantly why? Here those of us who have committed to be stewards and those of us who are feeling the restlessness that means it's time for a next step in our spiritual growth, will share stories that ask these essential questions and what our experience, tradition, and scripture tell us about the answers.

Welcome to the circle.